Covert Minds
by SilverSepulchre
Summary: You know what they say about incompatible chemicals and their reactions. The chemistry between Shadow and Rouge was always undeniable, and nothing brings it out like a mission together. But what Rouge doesn't know might cause her very own demise. SxR
1. Prologue part 1: Introducing Rouge

**Prologue Part 1: Rouge**

"Not again." Rouge mumbled. The Chief turned to face her as she started to walk up to him.

"I'm afraid so, Rouge," he began. "Station Square and Westopolis have been undergoing several thefts lately, and we need you to crack the case. We don't pay you to sit around in your apartment. Which, mind you, we fund."

This was the type of opportunity that Rouge was all too apt to exploit.

"Only if you take off this damn bracelet," she replied with a point to her ankle. "It makes it pretty hard to get a conversation going. Ever tried hitting on a guy, then having him ask what's on your ankle, and you have to say, 'Oh, it's just house arrest for trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds again…I can't leave the neighborhood.'?"

As if on cue, the bracelet beeped and a little red light flashed.

The Chief combed his fingers through his short, gray hair, not sure what to do. He knew all too well that Rouge was the only one that could steal well enough to catch this thief. But taking her house arrest bracelet off meant she could leave Station Square.

"Alright," he agreed, looking defeated. "The bracelet comes off, but if anything seems to get out of place, you're off the case, and double the time with the bracelet."

Rouge put her hands on her hips. "And?"

"Isn't the bracelet enough?"

"All the world isn't enough for me, doll. But I want what you've got."

"What do I have that you are interested in?"

She looked over at the case in the corner of the room- a gigantic jewel sat in a glass case.

Chief's eyebrows raised and he shook his head. "No! No, no, no! You may not have the City Jewel! It is the last precious gem left in Station Square after you gave that last batch to Eggman in exchange for that stolen Chaos Emerald."

Rouge flashed a signature sly smile. "Well in my defense, you told me to get that Emerald back or I was going to lose my job. Those jewels were just a sacrifice."

The Chief sighed in defeat. "You can only have it for this mission, and it may not be altered in any way, shape or form! Do you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Chief." She closed one eye, staring down the glass case that enclosed the jewel as she moved her head back and forth. Then, ever so gently, she raised the glass and removed the jewel.

"Whoa!" the Chief was appalled. "Did you just…? There was an alarm! And lasers! Are they on?"

The secretary nodded, looking just as shocked as the Chief. "Yes, sir. They are on."

"Did she… Rouge? Did you just simply know how to pull it open without touching a laser or setting off the alarm? Without your scope?"

Rouge shrugged as she examined the gem. "I suppose I'm a natural. And I know that your lasers form the pattern of four X's…"

"There is no possible way you could have taken it out!"

"There's a thing called creativity. Learn the art, hon."

She winked, tucked the jewel away in a small clutch purse, and stepped out of the large office.

She went through the hallway to the stairs of the large building, then to the lobby, and from the lobby's large, glass door to the steps outside of the building, taking all twenty of them in stride. She reached the sidewalk and smiled widely, turning to walk in the direction of her house. She stopped as she heard a familiar voice.

"Rouge! Have you seen Shadow?"

Rouge turned to face Sonic, pretending to not notice that he had been taking a gander at her backside. "No, I haven't seen that angsty bastard in a while. Did he get himself locked up again?"

Sonic groaned, making his general dislike of Rouge suddenly audible. "Get of your high horse, Rouge. I could have just used that same response if someone asked me where you were. Now come on, have you seen him?"

"No, I have not." She murmured curtly.

"Well, alright! Cool, I'll see ya later!"

"I hope not," she muttered to herself.

"What?" Sonic asked innocently while turning around. He honestly hadn't heard what she said, and his general naivety led him to assume the best of her.

"Oh, nothing, Doll. I was simply talking to myself."

"You always did have a bad habit of that."

Not sure what to say, she settled with a quiet "Thanks."

"Later!"

Rouge rolled her eyes and turned around to continue walking towards her home. She couldn't wait to relax on the modern couch in her living room. Maybe she would put on some smooth jazz and sip wine until she finally fell asleep looking at the gems scattered around her house. She treated millions, if not billions of dollars of jewels the way some people might treat dirty socks. One could argue that she had everything while others could argue she had nothing at all; a lifestyle of treating that with value like dirt made it hard for her to find value in anything at all.

The doorman winked at her as she entered her apartment building. He was old, and she knew he didn't mean it in a flirtatious way. He was just a friendly old man, so she waved at him.

"Hey, Bruce."

"Good to see ya, Rouge!"

"How are you?"

"Fantastic! You?"

"Fine, fine! I gotta get inside, my favorite show's coming on any minute. Take care!"

"You too!"

She smiled at him and continued up the stairs to her apartment. She sighed as she entered through the large wooden door. It looked empty.

Shadow, the hedgehog Sonic had asked her about, had been her roommate at one point in time for a few months. There wasn't any romantic reason, it was just that Shadow had hit a low stage in his life and Rouge was the only one willing to help him out. Of course, she knew he was no good, because he had never thanked her. But yet, she still missed him around the house every once in a while. His daily routine had gone something like this: sit around on the couch all night (he didn't sleep) and eat potato chips, then get up to do his hero stuff, come home, clean, and eat some more chips. He was almost invisible to her.

And one day, he was just gone. No note, no sign he had ever lived there. His stuff was gone, and it looked the exact same way as it had before he came. For someone who had seemed so invisible, his absence seemed to fill the room. Rouge had gotten a check in the mail a few weeks after, exactly one half of the monthly utilities bill, and a small note telling her he was fine, and ready to move on in life and stop rooming with her. Rouge never knew why he left, or why he even had to stay with her, for that matter. She had never really minded the fact that he left (they weren't very close), but it did put her in need of a roommate.

Although Rouge's rent was covered by the government, she was expected to pay her own utilities. This concept of paying her own utilities arose when the government received their first bill from her apartment: a whopping $800 in air conditioning alone. Rouge's only excuse was that she needed her house to be at a specific temperature because of all of the gems in it. The Chief, reasoning that they were already baying enough for her rent, $3500 a month, gave Rouge an ultimatum: either to put the jewels in the government's hands or pay for her own utilities bill and keep her apartment. She chose the latter because that apartment was, in her opinion, pretty damn snazzy.

When the strange pink hedgehog, Amy, asked her if she could room with her, Rouge immediately said no; she found Amy to be a big nuisance. She didn't want to deal with Amy. So, Rouge's apartment was just littered with wine glasses and gems. Glittery wine, glittery wine glasses, glittery jewels. That was Rouge's life.

Sometimes, just to make herself feel less lonely in the penthouse, she'd greet Shadow, even though he wasn't there. She decided to do that as she walked into her apartment on one particular day.

"Hey Shadow," she said happily, just as she always had back when he lived there.

"Hello, Rouge," She responded with a depressed tone, lowering her voice a few octaves. She did a fantastic impression of Shadow.

She rolled her eyes at her own peculiarity and shook her head slowly. She slipped off her long, white boots with the heart on the toe of the shoe. It was good to get out of the heels. She changed from her normal black, leather jumpsuit with a heart where the bosom was into some comfy pajamas- she was no longer Rouge, secret agent. She was now Rouge, frequent wine-sipper and gem "collector."

She tuned into the jazz station on the little radio next to the TV. It played a low tune of a saxophone, with a strong bass and a quiet piano harmony in the background. She hummed along - she knew this song. She flopped down on the couch and just sat there, staring at the wall.


	2. Prologue part 2: Introducing Shadow

**Prologue Part 2: Shadow**

About seven hundred miles away in Westopolis, Shadow the Hedgehog sat on top of a building, staring out at the sunset. He wasn't admiring the beauty of it, because of all the things it was, it was certainly not beautiful: the smog hovering over Westopolis was brown, and too thick to really see through. After the bout with the Black Arms, the sky had never really been the same, and all of the ash that had circulated in the air for so long never really seemed to have left.

He was deep in thought, and he wasn't even sure what he was thinking about. He was mostly wondering how it was that the smog had stayed after all of the anti-pollution efforts the city had made. He figured that anti-pollution acts were, after all, just another thing that came from City Hall and were therefore not reliable or high in chances of success.

His thoughts were interrupted by someone grunting as they climbed up the stairs to the top of the building. From his spot on the ledge, he had a clear view of the doorway. But more importantly, he had a clear shot. He turned his head slowly to face the person who, as far as he was concerned, was guilty until proven innocent. His hand instinctively moved to his 9mm pistol as a quick debate over the ethics of "shoot first, ask questions later" flashed through his mind. From far away, the pistol might have just looked like a discolored blotch. And anyone who ever got close enough to see what it was would probably never get to tell the story.

He tried to turn off the safety as quietly as he could. The small click-click worried him - had the potential attacker heard him prepare to shoot? The footsteps stopped for a second - heavy wheezing. It was obviously a male, probably somewhere between forty and fifty years old. Whoever he was, he was a frequent smoker, as evident by not just the coughing but the stench that surrounded him. The man must have been somewhat out of shape, or at least not used to cardio, because the stairs leading from the top floor to the roof were not exactly numerous.

Shadow turned to face the door that was about to fly open and held his gun in front of him.  
The door opened with the loud creak characteristic of most buildings in Westopolis. The man stepped out.  
"Mister Shadow… Uhm?"

"God damn it, Jacobs! This is why no one has promoted you yet! Either be stealthy the correct way or just yell out your name so I know it's you!"

"Sorry, Sir."  
"You could've just gotten your brains blown out, kid."  
"Don't you call me a kid, you hog! I'm thirty eight years old!"  
"Jacobs, I do entreat you to ask yourself who here is carrying a gun."  
"We both are."

Shadow flew at the him, and before Jacobs knew what hit him, all of his weaponry was gone. He blinked as Shadow stood there, holding two pistols, the gun that had been on Jacobs' back, a small pocket knife, a long strap covered in large bullets, and three grenades. Shadow set them down.

"Now, who has the guns, grenades, and ammunition, Jacobs?"  
"Y-you do, Sir."

"Exactly. Go find the Chief and tell him I said that I want time to myself, whatever this mission is. Tell him to find someone else for the job, like that wretched blue hedgehog."

"Yes, Sir."  
"Now go."  
Jacobs hesitated for a second before speaking again. "Sir…?"  
"What, Jacobs?"

"Do… why did you even join GUN? I mean, you never do anything except for when major terror strikes the world! Usually, you just tell Chief to get Sonic or Knuckles to do the work. Why?"

"Well," he answered, not directly answering the question, "it's better to have me when terror strikes even though I do nothing otherwise than have me do my work when I'm supposed to and be far too tired to work when I'm needed, eh?"

"You can't get tired. You don't technically need sleep. You just sleep to feel normal."  
"Normal? Am I not normal, Jacobs?"

The low-rank officer rolled his eyes. "Well, you are a little crazy, and you shoot first and ask questions later ninety nine percent of the time, and you could take out the entire race if you wanted. I am not afraid to tell you that I believe you could kill Sonic because he can only dodge bullets if he sees them coming."

"I was aware of all of that. But what if I'm the normal one? And everyone else is just… odd?"  
"That'd be a pretty odd world."  
"Tell me about it. Try being the only normal one in the world. It's tough work, Jacobs. It's tough work indeed."

And with that, Shadow hopped off the ledge of the building. Jacobs flew to the edge, yelling out his commander's name in horror. He looked down at Shadow, who was snickering and slowly climbing down the windows using their sills like steps on a ladder.

"Sir, don't scare me like that!"  
"Oh come on, you idiot, I'm a natural at this!"  
"It would save us all a lot of stress if you would stop doing that!"  
"Oh, come on, Jacobs, I'm a natur- shit!"  
"Sir!"

Shadow's foot slipped, and as he fell it seemed as if the second he found something to grab onto he had passed it on the way down. He seemed to see everything in slow motion after that: Jacobs' eyes widening, his mouth opening to yell out at his boss. Shadow looked quickly down at the ground, which was twenty five stories beneath him, at least. He tried to grab onto something, but it just sliced open his finger. He clawed at the air desperately. He closed his eyes and prepared for the bitter end. He noted that the bright side of it was that he could finally get an answer to his question about whether or not he could die, and then...

He landed with a sickening crack and a thud. Suddenly, he wasn't Shadow the Hedgehog, GUN Agent. Now, he was Shadow the Hedgehog, bloody heap of fur and bones on the ground with a fractured skull and Lord knows what else shattered.

But, he was also Shadow the Hedgehog, (barely) a survivor of a twenty seven story fall.


	3. Chapter 1: The trip to Westopolis

"Rouge! Did you hear what happened to Shadow?"

Sonic threw Rouge's door open. She looked up from the magazine she was reading with no sign of shock; doors flying open was a common occurrence in the life she chose to lead. She had only been reading a boring article about some loser rap star that almost beat his girlfriend to death, anyways, so she wasn't even mildly bothered to stop reading it.

"No, Sonic, I did not hear. Last time I checked, it was around eight PM. Aren't you in bed by now?"

"Usually, I am. But I just happened to be watching the news to hear a breaking story. Rouge, Shadow jumped off of Westopolis' biggest apartment building."

"Not the Paradise Wind apartments!"Rouge had to admit that the way Shadow had mysteriously fallen from the tallest building in Westopolis was eerie.

"Yes, those ones! He fell about twenty seven and a half stories total."

"Was it suicide?"

"Well, it might have been an attempt," Sonic began, unsure as to whether or not Shadow could actually die. "but by some miracle, he's still breathing. He's got two broken arms and a broken leg, accompanied by a broken foot, I think. There might be more. He'll probably be in the hospital for a good six months."

Rouge tossed her head back and laughed. "Six months? Ha! This is Shadow we're talking about, Sonic."

When Sonic returned her interjection with a confused look, she added, "He's the ultimate life form! Or something. He'll probably be in there less than two weeks! Come on, he survived falling out of space!"

"But he lost his memory when he fell from space."

"Who cares? He survived it. I give him ten days or less in that hospital."

"Wanna bet on that?"

"Ah hell yes!"

"Fifty?"

Rouge shook her head and delicately rested the tip of her index finger on the face of Sonic's new gold watch. "That."

Always one to accept a challenge, Sonic replied with a stern "It's on!" and they shook hands.

"Rouge, I gotta go. Sally and I have a dinner and…"

Rouge shrugged. "Don't blabber on like I actually care. Go, go."

"Bye, then."

"Keep my watch nice and safe now," she called as he walked out of the door.

Rouge closed the door behind him. She didn't really care about Shadow's dilemma - he was always getting himself into trouble, and he always got out of it just fine.

She walked slowly down the hallway to her room. Her bed was in the center of the room, pressed against the wall. It had a pink and purple striped comforter and purple sheets. The walls were all purple, except for the wall her bed was pressed against, which was pink.

She turned her lamp on and sat down at the desk to the right side of the room. Immediately, she went online in hopes of finding pictures of Shadow's fall. It looked kind of gruesome. She shuddered and closed the windows on the computer, and with a flick of a light switch she went to bed, hardly bothered at all by the day's events.

She woke up because someone was hammering on her door - a typical way to wake up when you work with GUN. She groaned and got up slowly, wiping the sleep from her large eyes.

"What do you want, Knuckles?" She mumbled sleepily as she swung the door open. She mentally thanked him for having the courtesy to knock.

"Sorry if I woke you," he started curtly. "We're all going to Westopolis today to see if Shadow's alright. Wanna come? We're taking my car so we can all fit."

"Do you honestly think Shadow's gonna give a damn that we came to see him?" she asked incredulously. "He'll just get all whiny and say that we shouldn't have gone out of our way. I'm not driving eight hundred miles to hear him bitch about his leg."

"We're also going to Westopolis to just go on vacation, since it has a beach. Besides, it's more around seven hundred anyways."

"I have a beach right here in Station Square."

"It's warmer in Westopolis."

"Who cares?"

"Oh come on, just come. No other girl is coming unless you count Cream, it's not like there's anyone to nag you."

"No."

"I swear to god Amy isn't coming!" he looked genuinely sincere, but Rouge knew that wherever Sonic went, Amy followed.

"That's what you said last time!" Rouge spat. "Then there she was, bags packed and ready to go, and I had to spend a week in Central City with that chick! It's not healthy for me to babysit her! I had to hold her down with all my strength to keep that crazy bitch from jumping onto a table and stripping her clothes off that time when we went to the club!"

"You're acting like you didn't do anything along those lines that night."

"Knuckles," she muttered with a 360-degree glance, "I thought we agreed that that never happened."

"Yeah, yeah whatever. Just come, okay?"

"Fine, whatever. Let me get my shit packed."

"See you in two hours."

"Yeah. Two hours."

A little over two hours later, Rouge was waiting outside her apartment, suitcase in hand. Knuckles' SUV was waiting in the parking lot, making a scene with its bright red color, black trim, chrome spinners and tinted windows. Knuckles had said he always wanted hydraulics; thinking about this, Rouge shook her head.

Knuckles was driving his car, his massive fists set around the leather steering wheel. Sonic sat in the passenger seat, sleeping. Tails was in the back, sitting next to Cream. Everyone had put their bags in the third and final row after the trunk filled up, and they sat next to a sleeping Vector.

Rouge tilted her head in Vector's direction. "What's he doing here?" She asked impatiently. She didn't want to have to squeeze between him and the luggage.

"He's just coming along because Espio and Charmy are up in Westopolis and he's meeting up with them."

"Where do I sit?"

"Just pile up some more luggage back behind the seats and sit next to Vector."

"Uhm, no. I'm not taking the back seat. I don't do backseats."

"That's strange, if I remember correctly, you're very familiar with being in backseats."

"Knux, do you like the way your nose is shaped right now?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I'd recommend shutting your mouth then."

She waltzed up to Sonic and pulled him out of the passenger seat. He groaned as he picked up her bags and went to sit next to Vector, but knew that it would be easier to just accept the defeat rather than challenge Rouge. Whether or not they fought over the seat, Rouge would get it in the end. Sonic figured he'd save everyone a few minutes.

Rouge immediately turned off the rap music Knuckles had playing. She enjoyed the silence with a smug smile on her face. Knuckles hadn't even tried to stop her.

Knuckles slowly whistled. Rouge recognized that whistle. She glared at him, her magenta eye shadow shining in the ray of light that hit it when she put her eyelids down in a harsh glare.

"Please tell me we're just taking this road to get on the highway."

"Well…."

"You didn't."

"Maybe I did."

"Knuckles! You said she wasn't coming!"

"Well, she found out, and flipped out and said she'd break my skull with her damn hammer if I didn't let her come…"

Rouge slammed her fist on the little stow area that was between the driver seat and hers. "God damn!" she exclaimed. "If she didn't have that stupid hammer, she'd be so worthless. She can't run, she won't fight, and she just tries to hit on Sonic and needs to be babysat! Why do we even let her come on missions? Why is she even on this team?"

"Rouge, I'm not sure if you noticed who GUN's biggest donators are. That would be Frank and Elizabeth hedgehog, aka her parents."

"Augh. If I sold the gems in my apartment, I could buy her parents' estate."

"Do you have three hundred million dollars worth of gems in your house?"

"More'n likely."

Taking an opportunity to brag, she added, "I'm not sure if you've heard, but I'm the proud owner of the City Jewel."

"How'd you get your hands on that one? A little something-something with the mayor?"

"No, actually. I'm catching a new jewel thief. This one is actually intriguing."

"So, they've got you on a mission to find yourself?"

"Well, I'm already working on that case, but there's one that actually isn't me."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But as for the case I'm on where the thief is me, I'm not sure how to get out of that one just yet."

"Good luck."

"Thank you."

Knuckles and Rouge rode in silence until they got to Amy's house. The entire car was silent, actually, save for Vector's snoring and the little tap noises of Sonic texting.

The second Amy stepped out of her door in a big, tan sunhat, a white cut-off shirt and jeans shorts, Rouge rolled her eyes and leaned over Knuckles to lock the doors. He pushed her away, and all she could really do was make a "Hmph!" noise and cross her arms.

Amy piled her flowery bags into the trunk, disregarding everyone else's bags as she shoved luggage around, and proceeded to happily squeeze herself between Sonic and Vector. Sonic groaned and pretended she wasn't there, trying to focus on the phone as he texted. Vector looked grumpily at Amy because she woke him up.

"Hi, guys! Aren't you all so happy we're on this trip?" Amy bubbled cheerfully. Rouge wanted to gag when she heard Amy's nasally voice.

"We're ecstatic, believe me," Rouge said as she glowered at Knuckles.

"Well, I just can't wait! Poor Shadow, in a hospital bed! I sure hope he's happy!"

Rouge laughed bitterly. Amy gave her an inquisitive glance.

"Amy, I think we need to get this straight right now," Rouge started, "Shadow isn't… happy. Ever. Ever. In fact, you could give him fourteen billion dollars, and he wouldn't be happy. If anything, he might be somewhat happy right now, because the media is smothering him with 'Poor Shadow' and 'Oh, Shadow, did it hurt?' everywhere or, perhaps, he's loathing life in general because of it. Plus, right now, he has an arm and both legs propped up in casts, and probably has more needles in him than I want to count, not to mention, he probably got one of the finest doctors, also doubling as one of the world's biggest douche bags. And of course, when Shadow finds someone with a personality like to his, he cannot stand it."

"By similar personality, do you mean… someone like you?"

Rouge cleared her throat. "No. I am not nearly as douche-bag-ish as Shadow."

Knuckles chuckled. "Says you."

Rouge gave Knuckles another death stare. "Remember what I said about your nose?"

He looked back to the road, driving slightly faster as though he wanted to escape Rouge. Unfortunately for him, no speed could rid him of her when she was sitting right there in the passenger seat, glaring at him.

For the first time during the whole trip, Tails looked up from whatever he was tinkering with and said, "This is gonna be a long trip for you, Rouge."

"Tell me about it, Kid." She sighed.


	4. Chapter 2: Meanwhile, in Westopolis

Back at the hospital, just as expected, Shadow was fussing about all the attention he didn't want at the moment. He didn't like people interviewing him while he, the ultimate life form, was a big wreck. It was demeaning and, to a degree, embarrassing.

As soon as the last reporter left the room, he tore the IV out of his arm. He almost winced at the pain, but caught himself before displaying any sign of weakness. He looked around the room, barely able to move his head. Although he was healing quickly, he knew that the pain would be there for a while.

His secret medicine for quick healing: the red Chaos Emerald.

He waited patiently for food he didn't even need. When the nurse, a chubby mouse, came in to give him his food, he looked her up and down and grumbled, "Aren't nurses supposed to care about their patients' health, June?"

The nurse looked up, confused. "Yes, I do care about your health." She said warmly.

"Well, obviously not enough to provide me with quality food." He retorted.

The nurse looked shocked. She stuck the IV back in his arm and wasn't exactly nice about it. She left his tray on the table where he'd have a hard time reaching it, and proceeded to abruptly leave the room.

Shadow leaned back into his pillows, which were too firm and felt more like chunks of cotton shoved into a plastic sack. He dozed off in a fitful sleep induced only by the medication that was being pumped into him.

When he woke up, he looked around his room to see that it was night time. He groaned and flopped back on the bed.

He flopped back on the bed?

He smiled with the realization that his back didn't hurt anymore. He could finally move comfortably from the waist up. The Chaos Emeralds were doing their job, and doing it well. He smirked and took his leg out of the sling holding it up. He grinned ear to ear, pulled out a pocket knife he kept hidden in his bag next to the bed, and split open the cast. He couldn't believe that the hospital hadn't checked him properly enough to remove all weapons. Then again, he was Shadow the Hedgehog. It was pretty much assumed that he didn't intend to blow up a hospital.

His left arm wasn't healing as fast as everything else. It still hurt and was healing at a somewhat average pace. Unlike the rest of his injuries, this arm wasn't already fixing itself and getting ready to come out of its cast. Shadow groaned - he didn't want his arms to be stuck in casts that long because of the smell the plaster would leave. He sighed and tried not to think about the potential odor.

The doctor came in. He was an elderly fox, with a nametag that read "Glen Meyers." He was reddish in color, and had his black hair combed back. He had on a white coat and was stereotypically carrying around a stethoscope.

"Shadow, you're healing surprisingly quickly. However, it's actually not that big of a surprise simply because of the way your body is formatted. You have hyperactive cells, traveling millions of times faster than the average person's. They are repairing at an astounding speed. At this rate, you'll be out in about four days. This is… a miracle, to say the least."

"Miracles don't exist, doctor." Shadow replied defiantly.

"Well, you're a medical mystery."

"For one, mysteries aren't real, either, because there is nothing that cannot be explained. For two, it's not a mystery at all. I was created in a lab as the ultimate life form. My body is so hard to break down it's not even fathomable. However, it's explainable. Thus, not a mystery."

"Okay, then. I see you have gotten out of your cast. Now, we just have to worry about that arm… It's not healing like the other one. I wonder why..."

Suddenly, the doctor raised an eyebrow. He reached into Shadow's bag, and pulled out the red Chaos Emerald. "So, this is why you're healing so fast. Shadow, Shadow, Shadow… You're body really is a mystery, but this is aiding it… possibly in ways that could be deemed illegal."

"Whatever floats your boat, Doctor… I just hope you realize that the more time I spend in this hospital, the vulnerable the city of Westopolis is. It would be a shame if we had aliens fall from the sky again and you were the doctor who kept me in a plastic bed."

His eyes widened as he gave Shadow a nod of approval. "We'll run some tests," he continued, as if he had never seen the Emerald. "Well… hmm. Perhaps… let's just keep this a secret." He slipped the Chaos Emerald into Shadow's sheets next to his left arm in an attempt to make it heal faster.

Shadow was alone again. He looked around the room. There was nothing to entertain him, and sleep sure as hell wasn't an option. There was a magazine on the table, and he felt like being daring, so he got up to get it. His leg didn't hurt that much, but he was careful to not walk with it just in case. He reached the magazine and his hours-old food.

He smiled at the cover- there was a picture of Rouge talking to the Chief. Shadow noted that this magazine was from the day before. But, he realized that this news spread fast, especially when it was about the attractive thief and what she was up to now. He grinned as he flipped to the story in the magazine.

"ROUGE THE BAT ON A CASE TO FIND A THIEF COULD PROVE DANGEROUS"

"Why of course it could," Shadow mumbled to himself.

He groaned as he read a line defending Rouge, claiming that she could be trustsed.

"This is bullshit," he said, his eyes flicking across the page. "They honestly think that she might not steal the gems? I'd bet my life that somehow, she'll end up with her hands on every precious gem because of this.

"Whatever, not my problem."

Shadow continued to flip through the magazine, and, intrigued to hear more about the Freedom Fighters, ordered a newspaper to be delivered. It was there in a matter of minutes.

His eyes widened in horror as he saw the cover page- "LOCAL HERO FALLS OFF TWENTY SEVEN STORY BUILDING - STILL MIRACULOUSLY ALIVE." He read the story, but was careful not to look at the pictures or the section where people gave their opinion on the event. It was all exaggerated to a point of claiming it was a suicide attempt and that he was barely surviving. The article went on to explore why he would commit suicide. Realizing this wasn't going to help his claims that he wasn't suicidal, he sighed.

He wasn't covered by the media as nicely as Rouge. Although the media was harsh on Rouge, they were at least telling the truth for the most part.

He gave in and looked at the pictures of himself. He didn't remember most of the events. A security camera from a hotel across the street had snapped a picture of him falling. There were pictures of his broken body bleeding all over the sidewalk. He shuddered. He looked at the pictures more closely. Feeling nauseous, he tossed the paper to the side with a pang of regret for having it sent up.

He was yet again stuck without anything to do, so he got up and grabbed the paper again. He laid back down, taking a few minutes just to get comfortable. He opened the paper - Sonic and Sally engaged. Not news. Knuckles caught with marijuana. Not news.

Shadow couldn't help but laugh at the fact that everyone he knew with all of their powers were still so tragically normal when the day was over.


	5. Chapter 3: The End of the Roadtrip

Back in the car, Rouge was not exactly enjoying herself. As a matter of fact, she was so bored and miserable that she was contemplating rolling out of the car and praying that she lived, or maybe even praying that she would die so she'd never hear Amy's voice again.

"And then, me and Cream went to hang out at an ice cream shop! We had so much fun! Then afterwards, we got our toes done and-"

Rouge interrupted. "Amy, don't you think that maybe the fact that the only person who actually enjoys your company is an eight year old girl says something about you? Something negative?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Rouge. You're just jealous that I actually have friends."

Rouge returned the roll of the eyes. "I have plenty of friends."

"Name one."

"I - I don't need to start listing my friends off to prove that I have more than you."

Sonic raised his hand to get everyone's attention. With a grin, he said, "Hey, guys, it's all good, she's got Shadow and he counts as several people because he never remembers who he is!"

Everyone laughed except Rouge, who opted to poke Knuckles and ask, "Okay, let's do a vote. If you had to choose, who'd you pick? Me or the pink one?"

Knuckles sighed. "Well, I think if it came down to who I would rather do, it'd definitely be Rougie, and personality-wise, I'd choose her, too, because she, unlike Amy, actually takes part in our missions."

"Don't call me Rougie."

Tails thought for a minute. "Well, Amy is friends with Cream and I'm friends with Cream and…"

"One vote for Amy." Rouge muttered.

"Rouge," Sonic said, still trying to scoot farther away from Amy.

"Rougie," Vector said, half asleep.

"I don't want to choose anyone..." Cream said quietly.

"Choose." Rouge said.

"Amy…" She said even quieter.

"So, three votes Rouge, two votes Amy." Sonic said.

"Told you," Rouge snarled at Amy.

"Whatever."

Rouge hummed along to a song on the radio when she suddenly felt a sharp, distinct, and easily recognizable feeling. She turned to face Knuckles and whispered, "I have to pee."

"That's great. I'll pull over."

"What?"

"You've never peed on a tire before?"

"Get me to a gas station!"

"We're in the middle of nowhere, Rouge! No one's gonna drive by!"

"… Fine."

Rouge mentally thanked god she wore jean shorts and a t-shirt that day. If she had worn her jumpsuit she would have had to peel off the top, too.

She sighed and squatted down by the tire, carefully making sure her shorts were… out of reach. She heard a stifled laugh and turned back - of course, Knuckles, Sonic and Vector were crowded around the windows. Rouge flipped them off and made an angry face. After they didn't move, she pulled a pistol out of her small clutch bag and fired it into the air. They all ducked in fear right away.

"Have you been working out, Rouge?" Sonic asked when she stepped back in the car. She gave him a nasty look and he stopped talking. She laid back and fell asleep.

"Rouge, wake up!" Knuckles was nudging Rouge's arm. She groaned and opened her eyes. "What?"

"Your pager has been going crazy. They're all from the mayor."

"Why would he want me to-?"

She snatched her pager and read the messages.

"Rouge! Where is the City Jewel?"

"Rouge. We need the Jewel right now!"

"Rouge the thief struck again!"

Rouge sighed and pulled out her phone. "Chief? Hey, it's Rouge. Jewel's missing or something?"

"Rouge," Chief said, "Your entire apartment was robbed. They took everything except some of the larger furniture. They left you a note."

Rouge almost yelled. "What? Well, I'm halfway to Westopolis! Hey, I'll be back in three days. Just, trust me on that one."

"Two days."

Rouge looked around the car. "Two days?" She asked everyone.

Everyone except Amy agreed. Rouge stuck her middle finger in the air and continued talking to the Chief. "Okay, Sir. Two days."

"See you then. We'll keep your apartment locked up tight as we can."

"Don't bother. It's just a bunch of paint and carpet. Keep your guards focused on things like the Capitol building."

"Good idea. Two days."

There was a soft click and then the line went dead. Rouge set her phone down and thumped her head against the glass window a few times.

"Hey, don't kill your already dying brain cells, Rougie." Knuckles said, laughing.

She glared at him.

"Hey, Rouge?" Sonic asked.

"What?"

"Do you know what Chief's last name is?"

She had to think about it. "Everyone just calls him Chief."

"Chief what?"

"Good question, I don't have an answer."

She was silent after that, thinking about it. She finally went to sleep, still not sure what Chief's name was.

She woke up a few hours later because of the bright lights of the Westopolis skyline. She couldn't help but feel accomplished; they had made it.

They booked into their somewhat fancy hotel and found their rooms. She had to share a room with what would be Team Chaotix once Vector met up with Charmy and Espio. Rouge set her bags down next to the largest bed, which she intended on keeping for herself.

She slipped her shoes off, stretched, and laid down. She couldn't sleep because she had taken such a long nap in the car, so she decided to find out where Shadow's hospital was and give him a late-night visit.


	6. Chapter 4: In the Hospital

The Ultimate Life form was sitting in his chair, bored and writing on his own cast - good thing he was right handed. He was just drawing loop-dee-loops and checkers, trying to find a way to make his cast at least less bland, though not necessarily attractive. He figured he might as well trash it before he sliced it off the next day.

He sighed and glanced at the clock - 9:00 PM. He knew he could get some sleep, but he didn't need it in the first place. He certainly couldn't allow himself to get used to that much rest. He determined how much sleep his body was used to getting; he could choose to need two minutes of sleep at night or he could choose to have to hibernate for two weeks at a time, but obviously the latter wasn't a good habit in his field of work. As soon as he healed, he'd just be back to sitting on rooftops until, eventually, someone actually needed him-but when they did, he couldn't be snoozing.

He sighed and tilted his head back at the ceiling.  
"Oh, Maria," he mumbled as he tapped his hand on the side table. "You said make these people happy and I know, that'd be great, but they're so terribly bothersome. Make it a better place for all those people, huh? Not happening anytime soon, that's for sure."

He wasn't sure why he was even having this moment of showing emotion, but it was probably resulting from a tad too much morphine.

"Supposedly, everyone has a purpose, but I don't think I have one. All I do is sit around until someone needs me to do something they can't get done alone. And sometimes…

"Sometimes I get hurt."  
He groaned miserably and looked at his cast. Although it was a mere inconvenience to have his arm broken, he simply couldn't stand the feeling of being incapable of doing certain things; if an alien army were to invade again (which they tended to do), he would just be down right out of luck. He was too paranoid and too secretly dedicated to his job to simply sit still as he could hear police sirens and fire trucks outside. He had to help people, whether he liked it or not; first of all because it was his job, second of all because it was what he had been programmed for, but most importantly because it was Maria's dying wish.  
There was a soft knock on the door. Shadow quickly shoved the marker into his bag before anyone caught him being as childish as to doodle on a cast.

Rouge entered the room, trying to be as quiet as possible in case Shadow was asleep. He tried to not grin evilly upon the sight of his old comrade but didn't quite succeed. All the missions he had been on with her rushed his mind; he hadn't realized how much just a few days in a hospital bed had made him miss being out actually accomplishing things. He remembered Prison Island blowing up. He still remembered the time when he, Rouge and Omega had all been on their mission to find Eggman, and ran into other teams on missions on the way. He smirked.

"Rouge," He said, still smirking. It was about as cheery as Shadow got.  
"Hey, Shadow," she mumbled, trying not to sound like she had really only shown up because she had nothing better to do. "I brought you something."

She held a bouquet in front of her. It was yellow roses, with daisies and lilies. The flowers in the bouquet showed that the present wasn't meant in an "I love you" or "Best friends forever" way. It was a "Sorry you almost died. I couldn't have cared less. Here's some cheap flowers." bouquet.

But the box tied to the bouquet was a sign that maybe, just maybe, Rouge cared that he almost died.

"You… is this…?"  
"Just open the damn box, Shadow. You make everything difficult."  
"Fine, fine." He opened the box cautiously and slowly removed the lid.

He (almost) smiled when he opened the box. It was the gold cuffs that went around his wrists - the doctors had taken them and hidden them somewhere. It also contained his rocket-booster shoes, which he had been wanting badly - if they had fallen in the wrong hands, who knows what could have happened. He expected to need them soon enough anyways, since his legs had healed.

"How did you get these out of the room they store the patients' shit in? They keep that room locked down."

She gave him a look of disappointment: how could he have just let it slip his mind that she was the world's greatest thief?

When he was done putting his cuffs back on, Rouge reached into her purse and handed him a small, warm package wrapped in paper.

He glanced at her curiously, reading the packaging that read "BURGER KING: HAVE IT YOUR WAY."

"Why did you get me something from Burger King?"

She laughed. "I assume that hospital food isn't good enough for you, since nothing else is. I mean, look at that untouched plate of food over there."

Seeing that Shadow still looked surprised, she added, "And I remember that when we were with Omega back in Casinopolis this is what you ordered at that burger hut place. So, I smuggled one of these in for you. Eat it before the doctor comes in, he probably doesn't hold you in highest regards. I'm just assuming you've been incredibly rude to him at some point between when you got here and now."

Shadow glared at Rouge for a moment, realized that she was actually right, and took a bite out of his bacon cheeseburger.  
Rouge glanced out the window at the remnants of a moon. "Remember the Space Colony ARK?"  
Shadow was silent. "Do you think I can forget it?"  
Rouge had forgotten that Shadow's best memories, but sadly the things that made him so bitter, happened on Space Colony ARK. She sighed. "Sorry, I-"  
"It's fine." He said, somewhat coldly. His voice had suddenly lost its inflection, the way it always did when he talked about ARK. Rouge vowed that one day she'd get the story from him.  
"Or, remember when we saw Chaotix that one time in that modern city? Megatropolis or something…"  
"Yeah, that was a big misunderstanding." He had started to hammer down the button that allowed pain medication to flow into his veins.  
"And when we ran into Sonic, Tails and that idiot in the jungle?"  
"Someone is clearly in a reminiscent mood," Shadow said, suddenly sharp with his voice.  
"I guess..." Rouge started timidly, trailing off. She switched tones mid-sentence and asked, "Where is your normal douche bag self?"  
"Maybe he's being blocked out by morphine he doesn't even need anymore."  
"So the truth comes out." She winked.  
Rouge took this moment of awkward silence to look around the hospital room. In the center of the small room sat Shadow's bed (which he looked so small in because it was human-sized), and next to that his IV and the machinery that kept track of his heartbeat. To the side of the room sat a small, beat up plastic chair. There were originally two by the wall, but Rouge had pulled one up to the left of Shadow's bed. There was a small window with the floral-print curtains open. The linoleum floor was white with little flecks of black, and the walls were a pale, almost white, shade of beige. There was a thick, wooden door, and she assumed that it was a soundproof room - this assumption coming from another assumption that Shadow hadn't been the quietest when they were lacing the stitches or setting his bones.  
Shadow was now absolutely slamming the button that was getting pain medication into him. Rouge rolled her eyes and ripped the IV out of his arm. Rude as it seemed, she knew it was for the best of Westopolis.  
"What the FUCK did you do that for, Rouge?" He was rubbed the punctured area in his arm where the IV had been.  
"You don't even need that! If you get addicted to pain medication, I'll get stuck with that blue hedgehog on all my missions!" Rouge knew she couldn't last another mission with Sonic.  
"I wouldn't mind a bit of time off from your annoying, trivial missions that really only benefit you," Shadow grumbled while putting the IV back in his arm. "You only like going on missions with me because I don't care if you steal things."  
Rouge rolled her eyes again and lifted up Shadow's blanket. She stuck her hand between his sheets next to his left leg and pulled out his pocketknife.  
When he raised his eyebrows, Rouge laughed menacingly at him. "What? You think I'm stupid?"  
She took the knife and cut the IV from the machine it was on. There was a small leak, which she plugged up by turning it into the bag, which was near empty.  
A Doctor was walking by as she did that, which, from a bystander's perspective, looked like a possible assassination.  
"Ma'am! What are you doing?"  
"Shadow doesn't need this anymore," she said sternly. "If he's the Ultimate Life-form like he blabs on about, he can take a little pain."  
"With all due respect, Ma'am, I am the doctor here."  
"With all due respect, sir, I work for the government and realize you're allowing Shadow to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds to get better. If you're going to do that, putting him on an IV could be potentially dangerous solely under the standard that Shadow could, in all technicality, be harvesting excess power from this Emerald. Shadow hasn't successfully proven his loyalty to GUN as of yet, and is therefore not allowed to harness power from a Chaos Emerald whatsoever without GUN supervision. It's one or the other, Sir."  
Rouge reached behind Shadow's pillow and found a bottle of pain pills, which she handed to the doctor with the plugged up IV bag.  
After that, Shadow didn't seem to be very willing to talk.  
"Don't get all beat up about that, Shadow," Rouge muttered to him as the doctor left the room. "Because if you beat yourself up, you won't have any pain medication to make it better."  
She winked at him again and left the room. Minutes later, she was leaving the automatic glass doors of the hospital.


	7. Chapter 5: A Mirage

Rouge decided to spend her first night in Westopolis in her hotel room. Generally, she'd go to the clubs and be a recluse at the corner of the bar, but for some reason, she wanted to just stay at home. Her little spat with Shadow had taken it out of her.  
Amy popped her head in the door as soon as Rouge flopped down on the small hotel room couch. "Rouge, wanna hang out with me tonight? I'm gonna go out to Club Mirage, you wanna come?"  
Rouge sighed. She actually did want to go to Club Mirage, but not with Amy. Never with Amy.  
"Sure." She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. She wasn't in the mood for clubbing, and she was never in the mood for the annoying pink hedgehog.  
"Great! I'll see you in twenty minutes then. You clearly need time to get ready."  
"No, I can just go in this." Rouge thought she looked fine.  
"No, no you can't, not if you're coming with me. So 2005, Rouge. Jesus Christ." Amy walked over to Rouge's suitcase and began to rummage through it.  
"Okay," Amy began, "Wear… this shirt, and this skirt, with these shoes, and I hope you've shaved your legs recently cause if you wear pantyhose with this you'll basically be taking _Cosmopolitan_ and burning a hole through it."  
Rouge briefly imagined taking the heels Amy was trying to get her into and stabbing her repeatedly. The feeling would be better than anything.  
Meanwhile in reality, Amy was eagerly fixing her hair.  
"Hey, R?"  
"Oh, don't you dare start giving me nicknames."  
"Fine then, Skuh-Rouge." When said Skuh-Rouge, it sounded as If Amy was calling Rouge "Scrooge." Rouge could barely even remember studying "A Christmas Carol" in freshman year, but she knew he was a bitter old man.  
"Uh boy."  
"Anyway, Skuh-Rouge, do you think my hair looks better with my bangs parted down the center curled or to the side like I usually wear it?"  
"Well, Amy - and I'd like to start this sentence saying that as soon as I come up with a good nickname for you, you will rue the day - I'd say down the center."  
Amy's hair looked terrible parted the center - her own vanity blocked the image, Rouge supposed. Of course, Rouge was vain herself. She would be the first to admit it. But although Rouge was vain (and slightly bitchy), Amy was just annoying with the way she not only looked down on everyone from her nose but spoke _through_ her nose.  
Rouge groaned and put on the outfit Amy had handed her. It was a button-down periwinkle blouse, and a white jeans mini-skirt with some white pumps. Rouge had to admit, it was a very cute outfit. It just seemed more like an outfit Amy would wear.  
As Rouge walked by Amy, Amy seized Rouge by the collar. As Rouge prepared to punch Amy's lights out, she realized what Amy was doing. Amy unbuttoned the first two buttons on Rouge's blouse, then gave Rouge a thumbs up.  
"There. Now your outfit says, 'I'm classy, but I might let you take me home if you're rich and will call me back in the morning.' Although, I've seen some of the guys you take home - hell, I work with Knuckles every day - and I bet they never call you back. Except for Knuckles. He pines over you. I had to go through his filing cabinet once and he still has a picture of you two back from high school on your prom night."  
Rouge groaned. Prom. She was slightly ashamed she went to prom with Knuckles. She told everyone her mother made her do it - she turned down Sonic to go with Knuckles, a dumb decision back then - but really, back in high school, Rouge had had quite a crush on Knuckles. She could barely remember prom since Vector had spiked the punch, though.  
Rouge regained her mental position in the present. She sat down on the bed that was in her hotel room - it wasn't much. Sonic was always cheap when booking hotel rooms since it was government money, and he didn't have the heart to make the tax payers pay for his own comfort in 1500 thread-count sheets and living room hot tubs. Of course, now that Rouge thought about it, Sonic didn't spare a dime on his hotel room the night of senior prom. Sally could say "We only slept in the bed, nothing happened" all she wanted, but Rouge had been around the block several times and knew "We only slept, nothing more" was almost always a big, fat lie.  
Amy stood in the doorway impatiently. "Are you coming, or are you going to talk to yourself through inner monologue all night? Because if you're just gonna have a soliloquy, I can leave."  
Rouge sat up and walked out of the door with Amy, regretting her decision the second she locked up the room.  
The second the door closed, Rouge already knew that her fate was sealed. Rouge would end up sitting alone at the bar, and throughout the whole night, probably not even drink a whole martini. Just sit there silently and disregard any guys that offered her a drink. Then, Amy would come over to the bar and make Rouge talk to her, thinking Rouge's lack of reply was simply her inability to form words in a drunken stupor, and finally give up. Then, Amy would start dancing with random people, get drunk out of her mind, and end up dancing on a table. Rouge would be amused for the first few minutes, but soon Amy would start getting grabbed at by all the perverts in the bar. Rouge's heart would finally outwit her brain and Rouge would knock the pervert unconscious with a swift kick. Amy would be really angry and call Rouge a party-pooper and end up being carried out, flopped over Rouge's shoulder, and they'd have to stop for a second as Amy threw up all over the sidewalk.  
At least, that was what happened most of the time when Rouge went to a club with Amy. It was always a different story when Rouge went by herself. But being near Amy just gave Rouge a miserable feeling of impending disaster.  
The walk to Club Mirage was a very short one, because it was right next to their hotel. Within minutes, they arrived at the mirror doors to Club Mirage. One entered through a room full of mirrors that was like a maze, and every now and then, you'd think you just keep going forward and hit a wall. Rouge already knew what to do- left, forward, right, right, forward, left. She got into the club and assumed her spot at the bar, in the corner.  
She was in the middle of ordering when she gasped as she saw a familiar silhouette sitting in the other corner of the bar. She gazed over at the silhouette to see if it was really the person she thought it was. She excused herself and the bartender just simply shrugged.  
"Shadow?" she asked quietly, in case she was mistaken.  
"Oh, God. Time to hide the Vicodin."  
"Oh, hush," she responded as she pulled up a barstool. "Hell, I could go for a good Vicodin right now."  
Shadow pulled out a pill container and offered one to Rouge.  
Rouge slapped the pill out of Shadow's hand. "How many times am I going to have to tell you I don't actually do drugs, Shadow?"  
Shadow shrugged. "I don't, either, see, but the doctor gave me them, and I refuse to take them because I figure that you had something there when you said I'd get addicted. So, I'm thinking I'll just capitalize on this and make some extra cash, and use it to take a much needed vacation."  
"As if you'd take a vacation." Rouge rolled her eyes.  
"Well, you know, it could happen. Of course, like always, I bet that in the end I'd have to save you from an exploding building again. That'd only be what, the third time?"  
"Something like that." Rouge smiled a little. It had been a while since she felt comfortable talking to someone. Out of all the Freedom Fighters, Shadow was the only one she genuinely liked. Sonic was okay, but she couldn't stand him for too long. Tails was going through his hormonal angst stage, since he was in his sophomore year, and although Rouge liked Tails, she didn't like him much now, and whenever she saw him recently, she would just sigh as she remembered the cute little fox who would take apart his own home to give someone in need of transportation a car.  
There was, of course, Knuckles, but events that had happened previously had made it awkward for her to be with Knuckles. Rouge was, underneath it all, a coward when it came to leaving her comfort zone. She covered it all up with her bitchy attitude and masked the insecurity in vanity, but the worst lies, she knew, were ones she told herself. She almost wished she could have as much fun in life as Amy did. Amy seemed so carefree, and didn't even seem to mind that Sonic didn't love her back. Amy's optimism actually intrigued Rouge. It was, in fact, that Amy was always so happy that made Rouge so miserable to be around her. Amy made herself happy, but she did so, it seemed, through feeding off the happiness of others around her. Or perhaps that was just Rouge's feelings due to the discomfort that enshrouded her when she was around Amy.  
"How'd you get out of that hospital?" Rouge asked suspiciously.  
"You would think that with how many times you've stolen the chaos emeralds you would know how fast they can heal a broken body." Shadow stated.  
"I can see that. Going back soon?"  
Shadow emitted a short, quick laugh that was barely anymore than noise out of his nose. "Only to fill my prescription and make a couple hundred bucks."

Shadow held up his hand to call the bartender over. "A martini for her and a Bloody Mary for myself."

"Bloody Mary?" Rouge asked.  
"What's wrong with that?"  
"Well, for one, you're really feeding into that Goth stereotype society gives you when you order a drink that looks like blood with a little lime on the glass. And for two, I drink Bloody Marys. They're slightly girly."  
"How do you know that you aren't just drinking a masculine drink?" Shadow inquired.  
"Good point," Rouge mumbled. Curiously, she asked, "How did you know I wanted a martini?"  
"Because you're a miserable woman." Shadow replied. He made it sound so simple.  
"How do you know I'm miserable?"  
"Well, it takes one to know one."  
"I suppose."  
They sat in silence for a while. Rouge sighed contentedly.  
"That wasn't a sad sigh, was it?" Shadow asked quietly.  
"I feel fine."  
"You know, I find that interesting. I feel rather well myself. Then again, we're probably just feeding off of each other's misery."  
The bartender returned with their drinks and set them on the counter.  
Rouge raised her glass for a small toast. "To misery."  
Shadow touched his glass to Rouge's. "To misery."


	8. Chapter 6: A Negative Encounter

Shadow downed his drink before Rouge had even taken her second sip. She raised her eyebrows in surprise as she tapped his glass with her nail.

"You know, Shadow," she pointed out sarcastically, "generally, when people are thirsty, they order water so they don't end up vomiting in a public bathroom."

"I don't get drunk, Rouge. Ultimate Life-form."

"I'll be damned," she said in surprise, "you didn't say that all cockily this time. Maybe instead of getting drunk, you get nice."

"Oh, please."

Rouge laughed. "See, that is probably the first time you've ever said 'please' in your entire life."

"I can say whatever I want to."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you do. I mean, you aren't exactly giving off a rainbows-unicorns-and-sunshine-vibe with your manner of speaking."

"You know Rouge," he replied, "you get on my nerves."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "You act like you don't drive me up a tree, yourself."

Shadow continued glaring. "I think I should go."

Rouge returned with her own glower. "I think you should go, too. But on one condition."

Shadow sighed. "What would that be?"

Rouge's eyes drifted over to Amy, who was climbing up onto a table. "Shadow, if you go, you have to take me with you."

Shadow grunted unhappily, grabbed his coat and started walking to the door.

Rouge stared after him, wondering if she should get up and follow him. She considered whether or not he'd even let her go anywhere with him when they weren't on a mission. She doubted it.

As Shadow's hand touched the exit door, he looked back over at Rouge. He slightly tilted his head out in the direction of the street. It was pretty much the international body language symbol of, "Come on."

Rouge sat up, put a ten dollar bill and a few ones on the bar for a tip, and walked out after him.

The pills in Shadow's jacket made a clattering noise with every step he took. Rouge pretended not to notice.

Shadow made an abrupt turn when they reached an alleyway.

"Where are we going?" Rouge asked cautiously.

"Making me some spare change. The government doesn't fund my housing, like someone."

Shadow stood in the middle of the alleyway and looked back and forth, waiting.

"Got any spares of those pills, sir?" It was a cracked, whispery voice that came out of the shadows so suddenly it made Rouge jump and gave her chills.

Shadow raised one corner of his mouth up in a crooked grin. "Why, yes I do. How much for the whole container?"

"Whatcha got?"

"Vicodin."

"How many?"

"Around a hundred."

"I'll give you a thou, cash."

"I feel like I'm getting gypped here, but I'll sell."

The person stepped out of the shadows. It was a stout, middle-aged man in a tattered trench coat. He was wearing old, leather boots that looked as if they would fall apart at any given moment.

"Shadow?"

"That's my street name, for sure," Shadow lied. "Look just like the guy, don't I?" In an attempt not to get caught selling pills on the Black Market, he changed his general dialect to one that was more relaxed and significantly less formal-anything not to sound like himself.

The man in the trench coat pulled out handcuffs and had Shadow pinned to a wall in a matter of seconds. Rouge sighed and put her palm to her face, suddenly realizing what was going on.

She raised up her hand. "Agent Jacobs, let Shadow go."

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but this is an illegal dealing."

"I said, let Shadow go. And that's an order."

"You don't have the authority, lady."

She tossed back her head and laughed before proudly spreading her wings. Her silhouette alone was a dead giveaway. Jacobs gasped and immediately began to unlock Shadow's handcuffs.

After Jacobs had successfully freed Shadow and ran off down the alley, Rouge grabbed Shadow by his leather jacket's collar.

"What the hell were you thinking?" she demanded, shaking him. "Shouldn't you have known that GUN has officers posted here? If it weren't for me recognizing who that was and pretending to have the connections I used to have before I was put on probation, we'd both have just lost our jobs!"

"Calm down. I can just tell Chief that it was a test if he brings it up."

Rouge rolled her eyes. Chief would figure out very quickly that it wasn't a test and that Shadow was just trying to cover up his own mistake.

Rouge looked over at Shadow angrily. "You used to be in charge of the sector that patrolled this area of town!"

Shadow raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

Rouge sighed. "Yes, really. You trained every single one of these damn officers."

"Did I?"

Rouge thought Shadow was being sarcastic; Shadow honestly didn't remember that far back.

"Is your memory that bad or are you just a complete idiot?"

Shadow suddenly ripped Rouge's hand off of his jacket collar. "You're not the only one disappointed in how bad my memory is!" he shouted. "We can't all be lucky enough to remember everything that's ever happened to us!"

Rouge was suddenly filled with guilt. "I- I'm sorry, Shadow."

Still scowling, Shadow started to storm out of the alleyway.

"Shadow, please- I- I didn't mean it to come out like that-"

"Well, it did. The things that come out accidentally are always the honest truth."

Rouge sighed, but continued to walk behind him.

Five minutes of silence later, she demanded, "How many times do I need to say I'm sorry for you to stop looking like that?"

Shadow's facial expression became worse. "'I'm Sorry' isn't going to fix anything."

Rouge grabbed Shadow's collar again and made him turn to face her. She drew his face close to hers and looked him directly in the eye as she muttered, "Well, just remember that I'm one of the few who's actually said it to you."

Shadow tore himself from her grasp with an angry grunt and began to walk off.

He stopped and looked back at her. He wanted to say something, but he was torn between "Fuck you" and "I'm sorry." He settled for a silent stare that lasted for five miserable seconds, then turned back around and walked away, disappearing into the city that seemed to grow steadily darker.


	9. Chapter 7: Shadow, Behind the Scenes

Shadow didn't glance back at Rouge, but if he had, he would have seen something very odd.

Rouge was indeed watching him walk off, with an emotion that was quite foreign to her conscience seeming to cloud her eyes: guilt. She had stolen the most powerful jewels in the world, shot people while with the CIA and left them to die, and betrayed thousands of people, but this one event had made her guilty.

Perhaps it was because Shadow was the first person who couldn't change himself to remove what Rouge hated about him the most.

But it was probably because Rouge realized that Shadow was the closest thing she had ever had to a friend.

Shadow's thoughts made him stop for a second, and he contemplated why he even enjoyed seeing people miserable. He had never really thought about it before-was it because he wanted everyone to know how terrible he felt all of the time? Or was he just a bitter person suffering from Amnesia?

He didn't want to think about it, but all of his thoughts ended the same way. That heart-shaped face, with the pale skin, and the big, blue eyes. Pure innocence. The sharp features like her nose, and her long, wavy blonde hair that tumbled down her shoulders so perfectly. Maria.

But that wasn't how the thought trains would end. That was only the beginning of the end. All the salvaged memories would flash back. The feeling that no one would ever make him that happy. Remembering her laugh. It was all part of the equation.

But the worst part was the part where he remembered her shutting him in a tube and sending him down to Earth. His last glimpse of Maria was seeing a bullet fly out of her back as she protected ARK to no avail.

Maria.

And of course, the final haunting thought was a faint, "Make those people down on that planet happy."

Happy. What a vague term! Shadow always figured that Maria hadn't lived long enough to realize that people were just naturally happy when she was around. She must have assumed that everyone was always happy, all the time.

Clearly not the case.

And of course, he thought about Rouge, and how she was probably very upset. He would, of course, find his own way of apologizing without actually saying the words "I'm sorry." He supposed he should just be complaint-free their next mission, if there was a mission at all.

The only reason Shadow enjoyed going on missions with Rouge is because he remembered another girl whose stubbornness had sometimes bothered him. Looking back on it, Maria's stubbornness was exactly the reason he was still alive, and she got to spend her last moments of life crying and watching herself bleed out.

He was plagued by the question of why she had put him in the tube, when she knew very well that he would have willingly died for her. She could have made people on "That planet" much happier. She probably locked him in the tube to show him that the feelings were mutual-she would die for him. She showed him, alright.

Shadow looked at the bottle of pills that started the argument. A little orange bottle with a few words printed on a white label. He tossed it into a garbage can after muttering a quiet "fuck it."

After walking a mile or so, he realized that it was getting pretty late (and therefore more dangerous) and he wasn't in the mood to witness a murder. As a result, he decided to zip his coat and run the distance home.

"Home" certainly wasn't much. It was a dark, two-room apartment downtown. He could hear whatever his neighbors did, which made living in a bad neighborhood quite advantageous for his reputation as a GUN officer. Shadow had arrested hundreds of drug lords just from overhearing the deals that would go on across the halls.

He knew that his name was notorious among the building's inhabitants. A new neighbor who moved in without being informed of Shadow's presence was sure to be arrested by the time they had their furniture set up. He'd have them busted that night for some terrible crime. Drugs. Fornication with a minor. Spousal abuse. Rape. Molestation. Every now and then, attempted murder.

Once, it was actually murder, rather than a weak attempt. Shadow caught the murderer of course. Whenever he stopped a crime from happening, he secretly rejoiced in knowing that although he didn't necessarily make people happy, he could at least help get rid of the ones who pointedly made others unhappy.

Today, Shadow came home to hear his neighbor having sex. He knocked on the wall as if he was knocking on a door and waited for a response.

"What?"

"Roger, keep it down. I've dealt with too much shit today."

Shadow's grumpy tone seemed to scare the pair across the wall into silence.

"Will do, sir!"

Shadow's neighbors did everything he said-they knew he could just get a search warrant and arrest them.

After a few more minutes, Shadow got up and knocked on the wall again.

"What, Shadow?"

"Is she legal?"

"She's fifty seven!"

Shadow groaned and laid down in his bed. He shouldn't have asked.

His two-room apartment was humble in a surprising and unfitting way. The living room and the kitchen were the same room, and the only thing that distinguished one from the other was the linoleum in the kitchen and the ratty carpet in the living room. In fact, the coffee table in the living room was also the dining table. The TV wasn't very big, and it got about five channels on a good day. It sat on a little bookshelf that didn't have many books in it.

In fact, it contained three books: an encyclopedia of drugs (used mostly so Shadow could figure out the street names for drugs that he heard his neighbors discussing at night), a book about quantum physics, and Sonic's autobiography, "The Blue Blur Slowed Down." The only reason Shadow owned it was because Sonic gave him a free signed copy, which included a little note written in blue ink.

"Shadow, thanks for saving my ass in front of the Chief a few days ago! Enjoy! And don't sell this signed copy on E-bay, you hear? Best wishes, Sonic T. Hedgehog."

Shadow hadn't even opened the book once, nor had he even considered it. He never even read the note inside.

His bedroom was separated from the living room by a thin wooden door that hung on one hinge. His bedroom was barely able to fit his small mattress and a dresser with a mirror over it. Next to the dresser there was another little door, which, if opened, led to a bathroom that was comprised of a sink, a toilet and a shower all crammed into one little four by four space.

At some point in time, and he wasn't sure when, Shadow fell asleep thinking of Maria, as usual.

He woke up two hours after he fell asleep. He didn't need sleep. He could stay awake his whole life and never get exhausted. It was nice to sleep though, because sometimes, when he slept, his mind would drift away from the constant guilt he felt while awake. He enjoyed sleep. Most of the time.

Since it was around one in the morning, he walked around his small apartment as he tried to plan what he would do the following day once the rest of the world was awake. He finally gave in and began to do what he did best-sit on a rooftop. He climbed the few flights of rickety metal stairs and finally reached the concrete roof of the large apartment building. It was slightly chilly even though it was summer. As he looked across town, he could see the hotel Sonic and the others were staying in.

He liked this view. He could see everything. The mountains, the city, and the beach, all in one glance. It reminded him of the hours upon hours that he and Maria had spent looking down on Earth from ARK, wondering what it was like to live there.

This planet was pretty much a big disappointment. So much for happy.

He looked over the ledge at the ground below-it actually made him flinch a little as he remembered dropping off a building not too far away-and he didn't flinch often.

He stared up at the moon. It was only about ¾ there, since Eggman blew a part of it out once. Shadow had very little recollection of the event, but from what he remembered, it was partially his fault that part of the moon was gone.

His reverie was broken by hearing the stairs creak as someone climbed up them at a pace fast enough to warrant Shadow to pull out his gun. After listening carefully to the footsteps, however, he could recognize the unmistakable schlep of none other than Knuckles the echidna.

"Hello, Knuckles," Shadow shouted at him over the clatter of his metal soles on the stairs.

"Hey, man," Knuckles began to spit words out as soon as he reached the roof. "Have you seen Rouge?"

Shadow shook his head. "Not since she visited my room in the hospital," he lied.

Knuckles raised one eyebrow, already suspicious. "Really?"

Shadow nodded. "Anyways, how'd you know I was here?"

Knuckles looked standoffish with his arms crossed, avoiding eye contact with Shadow. "I had your address in my Blackberry in case of emergency, and when I saw that you weren't in your apartment I figured that you'd be up here."

Knuckles had observed Shadow's change in facial expression after he had mentioned going into Shadow's house, and abruptly added, "Your door was unlocked, so I figured you were inside and just choosing not to answer. Why do you just leave your door unlocked like that?"

Shadow laughed his notorious bitter cackle. "I would actually like to see how many rounds I would get in someone who dared to enter my house before they finally realized who was shooting them."

Shadow tried to make eye contact for intimidation purposes, but Knuckles (who was already intimidated enough, and doubtful of Shadow's emotional stability to say the least) refused.

"But in case you're worried that I've got Rouge somewhere, I am willing to show you around my apartment building until you've seen all three hundred square feet of it."

Knuckles was still avoiding eye contact as he muttered, "I'd like to say I trust you, but you know I'd prefer to be given the tour to be positive."

Shadow nodded curtly and looked down at his watch to see that it was three in the morning. Suddenly he realized that Knuckles wouldn't believe a word he said; Rouge seemed to not be answering her phone and Shadow was the first and only suspect. As soon as Knuckles turned to go down the stairs, Shadow cocked his pistol, just in case.

They went down the several flights of stairs, but Knuckles craftily "stopped to look at a crack in the wall" just before entering the apartment, causing Shadow to have to walk in front of him. Knuckles now had the advantage if an attack was to take place.

Before Shadow could even pull up his 9mm handgun, Knuckles had him pinned to the living room wall.

"Amy told me Rouge left the bar with you," he said menacingly, "and now it's three AM and Rouge isn't in her hotel room."

Shadow sighed. This is exactly what he had been trying to avoid. It was so like Knuckles to pin Shadow to a wall and claim he was a murderer.

"Maybe you should call her." Shadow said defiantly.

"Shadow, do you like how your nose is shaped right now?"

Before Knuckles could steal another one of Rouge's lines, Shadow flung his head back so that one of his spikes poked Knuckles' eye. In a flash, Shadow jammed his finger into the first pressure point he could think of. Knuckles collapsed face-down in a heap on the carpet, giving Shadow enough time to crouch down and flip Knuckles over, pinning his assailant to the floor by the throat with his left hand. When he figured his grip around Knuckles' throat was sufficient, Shadow carefully removed his pistol from his pocket and put the barrel to Knuckles' head.

"I have found that tables turn magnificently when I'm around," Shadow marveled. "Now, I think this is how it should always be. You being quiet, I mean."

Shadow pressed the gun even deeper into the matted red spikes that served as the only thing protecting Knuckles' head. "If you say one fucking word before I say you can I will put a round in your skull, and then another for good measure and revenge."

He sat holding the gun to Knuckles' head for five minutes, reveling in the way Knuckles trembled in fear of being killed.

Finally, he began to pity the creature shaking on his floor, and whispered, "I'm going to let you stand up. Remember what I said about talking, and do realize that it applies to sudden movements in general."

He gently lifted Knuckles off of his feet, bracing himself in case Knuckles decided to spontaneously punch him in the gut or something of the like.

"You're pathetic," Shadow scoffed. "But you may speak now. No moving."

"I don't think I'm the pathetic one. I see a girl I love and I'm not going to sit back and let someone put a bullet in her like you would."

That was the end of the line. To bring up Maria was a step over a line Shadow had specified not to even consider going near. He punched Knuckles so hard in the jaw he was pretty sure he came close to breaking the metal plate that served as a replacement for the bone that had been shattered years before when Amy had hit Knuckles with her hammer.

Knuckles lay on the floor, spitting blood out of his mouth. He slowly got up, and Shadow kicked him in the face until Knuckles collapsed back onto the ground, unconscious.

"And now you're helpless just like I was."


	10. Chapter 8: Rouge's Predicament

Rouge was fine, save for guilt, for most of her walk home.

It was getting dark out, and she was getting paranoid, but the heels Amy had put her in were too high and too thin-she might as well have been walking on toothpicks. She backed up against a wall and took the shoes off in a way that gave her a full view of everyone that passed by.

Setting the shoes in her small clutch purse, she tried not to wince when her feet touched the cold concrete. She knew she would have to get home quickly and carefully. She didn't want to fly because of how close together the buildings were in this part of town, knowing that her wingspan might be too wide in some of the tiny alleys she would have to go through if flying. Furthermore, in order to fly, she would have to climb a building for a head start, and a skirt wasn't exactly the best thing to climb a building in.

"Freaking Amy," she muttered as she rubbed her arms vigorously in an attempt to warm up. It may have been summer, but it was nighttime and she wasn't clothed in a particularly toasty warm way. "I'm gonna lose my toes to frostbite at this rate. Oh, Shadow'd get a kick out of that one." She rolled her eyes.

As her eyes rolled to the right, they fell upon the window of a store without any lights on. Suddenly, her eyes widened, her ears pricked, and her focus increased tremendously.

"Hello, beautiful," she said as she gently rested her hand on the plexi-glass, gently running her fingers down the glass.

Just beyond a bullet-proof glass barrier sat a massive amulet on display. The amulet was twenty-four karat gold, but that didn't matter; Rouge's eyes were busy admiring the shine reflecting off of the surface of a massive red jewel that sat in the center of the amulet, surrounded by small diamonds.

"I could use that thing as a paperweight," she marveled as she reached into her purse for some latex gloves.

She looked left and right before slipping the gloves on. Robbing a high-profile jewelry store was a rather prosaic task for her, but amidst all of the people on the street, it would be quite the rush. She smirked and examined the door.

Locked. Of course.

She looked back and forth again, making sure not to seem suspicious. Slowly, she waltzed over to the side of the building to look inside. There were six cameras for one small store. It'd be almost impossible to get through them. The laser system was undoubtedly off the charts in quality, but she knew exactly how to stop that.

On every jewel, there was a slight, observable reflection of the lasers that could only be seen at a specific angle. The chances of actually seeing the laser were almost nil because of how exact of a spot you had to be in, but Rouge could easily figure it out. She just had to get in.

She went around back to find that the door was locked. Very carefully, she tugged on the cuff of her gloves until the latex was tight around her claws. She took her pinky nail and stuck it craftily in the keyhole and twisted. The lock turned with a quiet click.

She opened the door cautiously, keeping her wings out of possible camera view and her head down. Her eyes flitted back and forth across the jewels in the cases; in seconds, she had the lasers mapped out. In case she had miscalculated, she looked around for the siren, and found it at the center of the room, on the ceiling.

Knowing what it would do if she tried to shoot it, she contemplated what to do. She concluded that shutting the power off in the room to turn off the lasers would be the best idea, and that as soon as she had the ability to walk around, she could splash the battery-powered alarm with some water from a bottle she kept in her purse.

She ran outside and scaled the brick building, much to her own chagrin, until she found the power box on the roof. She examined the box carefully and clicked the switch to turn off the power in Suite 245, the jewelry store.

After climbing back down, she went back through the door she had left open. She knew exactly what to do from there, and within seconds, the amulet was in her hands. She tossed it in her clutch purse, wrote an IOU note that she stuck to the case the amulet was in, and started to walk to the door.

A sudden movement in the corner stopped her in her tracks. She slowly turned to face the figure that hadd moved to another corner.

"Wh-who are you?" she asked shakily.

"I could ask you the same thing," the voice whispered back.

Then, everything went black.


	11. Chapter 9: Why Hello, Espio

Shadow pulled out Knuckles' Blackberry and dialed Rouge.

No answer. Knuckles wasn't lying.

Shadow groaned. Rouge and Amy were in trouble, Sonic was asleep and he had just knocked out his only potential backup partner who was emotionally invested. In the time it could possibly take Knuckles to wake up, Rouge could be killed and shipped to another country.

Shadow sighed heavily. He'd have to call up Sonic. He didn't want to deal with Sonic, though. Tails wasn't quiet enough, and too angsty. Amy was drunk somewhere. There was Team Chaotix, but that was a long shot. They wouldn't do a thing for him if there wasn't money in the deal, and he didn't want to pay money for backup he was only using as a safety blanket rather than as a necessity. He'd have to go it alone.

He suddenly realized there was one level headed member in Team Chaotix, who should have been waking up right at that moment.

He reached for his own phone and dialed the number.

"Shadow, why are you calling me this early?"

"Because I knew you'd be awake by now. Sorry if I interrupted your morning rituals."

"Fine. It wasn't working out anyway since Vector's snoring so loud."

"Chaotix is sharing the room with Rouge, aren't you?"

"Yes, we are. She didn't come home tonight. Is she in trouble?"

"Probably, and that's why I need to find her. I've already got her being tracked."

"Do I need to meet up with you at your apartment, or is that not safe?"

"I assure you it's safer than your hotel room."

"Be there in ten, will you have her tracked by then?"

"Of course."

"Amazing, the apps they have for Blackberries these days."

"Espio, this is an advanced government communication device. These aren't apps, they are the best computer programs available this side of Soleanna."

"We get it, you're my superior, blah blah. I'm on my way out the door. Be there soon."

"You better be."

He hung up and opened the call tracker on his phone to track Rouge's cell. Of course, it was an abandoned warehouse somewhere downtown. He groaned, realizing that whoever he was dealing with was either extremely new to the game of crime or very experienced and wanting him to let his guard down. It was going to be a long drive, a long battle, and a long day. It'd be faster to run but Espio couldn't run that fast for too long.

Shadow grabbed his belt with the two holsters on it and put a gun in each holster. Just for safe measure, he brought a few extra clips. He wanted to take his jacket, but knew it would weigh him down.

Espio knocked on the door the second Shadow finished getting ready. The purple chameleon was starting to unintentionally fade to the brick pattern that made up the wall behind him.

Shadow nodded at him as they walked out of the door and they immediately started walking to his car.

Upon joining GUN, the government had offered to fund Shadow's house. They offered to pay his living expenses, feed him, clothe him, an provide him with free travel. He turned it all down on the condition that he got to choose his own work car. Shadow lived in a terrible neighborhood, wore average, non-designer clothes, paid his own bills, and funded his own travel, but he thought it was all worth it.

Shadow pointed to a large sheet of metal on the ground in the parking garage. "I need you to help me move this."

Espio was confused, but went along anyway.

The metal was moved to reveal a secured underground parking space containing a black Bugatti Veyron. It was the one material possession he truly cared for. He pulled the key out of his pocket and clicked the button on his key chain to unlock the car.

Shadow took the tarp off of the car carefully but quickly, making sure not to pull too hard. When his car was finally visible, Espio's jaw dropped.

"This… Shadow, is this your car?" Espio was walking around the car, staring in awe. Years of training to not care about material possessions were shattered when he laid eyes on this flawless car.

Shadow nodded like it was normal to have a $1.7 million car. "I never said I wouldn't take advantage of the rewards open to me for working at GUN, I just said I wouldn't let them fund my house."

Espio put his hand on the passenger window as he leaned in to look at the perfect leather interior. There was a small nose print left on the window. Shadow groaned and reached into the glove compartment to pull out Windex and a napkin. "Espio, get your filthy snot off of my widow."

"Sorry."

As Shadow started up the car (and as Espio almost had a heart attack hearing the engine re) Espio crossed his arms and tried not to look jealous.

Shadow smirked. "Surprised?"

Espio nodded blankly. "The Chaotix pay for their own warehouse and office, and when GUN gave us a company car we got a ten year old minivan with a satellite dish that didn't even work anymore."

"Guess you guys don't quite have the impact I do," Shadow replied with a smirk.

"You don't have as much impact as this car does, Shadow."

Feeling the smooth way the car hummed along down the road seemed to get the best of the typically well-disciplined Espio. Without looking at Shadow, he quietly asked, "Can I drive it when we leave the warehouse?"

"No."

"But-"

"What did your sensei say about interrogating after people say no?" Shadow mocked.

"How do you know my sensei?" Espio shuffled uncomfortably in his seat.

"I happened to teach your sensei how to shoot a gun because that whole Ninja thing didn't cut it when he reached eighty-five years old and realized he lived alone."

They rode in awkward silence. Shadow looked at the deserted streets before stomping on the gas pedal. This was the perfect opportunity to get a case of road rage.

Espio's eyes widened as he got whiplash. He was pinned to his seat. He put his hand over his heart in a feeble attempt to lower his currently off-the-wall heart rate.

Shadow grinned evilly. He was glad that Espio was intimidated. He always hated how Espio's ego was so inflated. But then again, Shadow's ego made Espio's look like it could fit in a thimble.

In five minutes, Shadow covered what would have been a half hour drive if he had been in a normal car.

They arrived at the warehouse. It was a massive brick and concrete building that towered over the two, casting an intimidating shadow across the ground in its wake.

Shadow groaned and took off his shoes, knowing that his footsteps would echo in the large building. Their assailants could be anywhere. They had to be careful.

Espio jumped in the air, did a back flip, and suddenly he wasn't there.

"Show off." Shadow said quietly.

"Well, see," the air to the left of Shadow said, "I don't have a two million dollar car to show off, so I settle for invisibility."

Shadow grunted and looked at the windows and doors.

"The windows and doors are all boarded up from the outside," he said aloud, mostly to himself. "That means they had to get in somewhere, so there's gonna be a door or a window without wooden planks nailed over it."

Espio nodded, but Shadow didn't see, of course. "I'm gonna go around the other side, let's meet at this general place only on the other side."

"Alright. Check in with me every now and then and tell me if something comes up."

"Can do."

And with a back flip, Espio was gone.

"You don't have to back flip, you know," Shadow said into the air.

From about ten feet away, Shadow heard, "Yes I do. It aggravates you."

He heard the gravel crunching beneath invisible feet and waited for them to fade into the distance.

Shadow searched his side of the building, but he couldn't find any way in. He walked until he found Espio. He was sitting on a rock, his waist and everything below it was gray, and his upper body was brick patterned again, like the building behind him. If it weren't for his shoes and gloves, Shadow would never have known he was there. Shadow made a mental note to tell Rouge to be careful when she got changed in her hotel room.

Espio stood up. He looked over at Shadow. "There is no entrance."

Shadow nodded. "I know. But I know how to get in."

Espio muttered a faint "Fantastic" as Shadow pointed to a sewer hole.

After ten minutes of walking in waste, Shadow and Espio emerged from the sewer into an underground hallway. They could barely stand up in the dark, musty enclosed space.

Espio started breathing heavily.

"If you're going to breathe so hard, can you please at least do it through your nose? It's an enclosed oxygen space down here."

"Sorry, Shadow. It's just that I'm scared of tight spaces."

Shadow sighed. "You may be the best of the Chaotix, but you're pretty incompetent when it comes to my work."

The tunnel was surprisingly long. It came to a stop at a door. Shadow carefully opened the door. He turned around quickly to make sure Espio was behind him. No one was there. Shadow promptly asked, "Espio, are you invisible?"

"…Yes."

"Just making sure."

Behind the door was a narrow flight of stairs. He climbed the stairs, gun loaded.

Before he could reach the door atop the stairs, he felt Espio pull on his gun holster.

"Espio, this is not a time for games."

"No, I had a question, and I'm trying to be stealthy."

"Espio, stealthy is not asking questions."

"Well, before we go into the warehouse. It's really eating at me."

"If it will make you shut up, fine. What?"

"Why was Knuckles unconscious on your floor?"

"He deserved it."

"Did you spike his drink with some type of medication?"

"Believe me, if I spiked someone's drink because I was lonely, Knuckles would be my last candidate. I knocked him unconscious because he called me a murderer."

"Aren't you?"

"That has nothing to do with this. He thought I murdered Rouge."

"Oh. But you didn't."

"No I did not. That would be why we are here."

"That's all."

"Praise the heavens."

Shadow gently opened the door and slid in. He heard Espio remove his shoes and tiptoe in as well.

The warehouse was piled with crates and boxes, with the occasional cart for moving them scattered about. It made it hard to find anything.

He heard Espio whisper behind him, "I'll cover you."

"Good idea. I bet they're in the center. The crates seem to be largest and more crowded in."

As they approached the center of the crates, he could hear muffled screaming. Someone had duct tape on their mouth. Shadow ran to the sound. It wasn't a low enough voice to be Rouge, but he was pretty sure it was Amy. Not questioning how Amy had gotten there, he went to save her, knowing that wherever Rouge was, the villain would want him to go there first.

He ran to the voice, holding his belt so it would rustle as little as possible. He didn't know if Espio had caught up with him, but he knew he had to save the girls. He entered the area, and saw Amy tied up. Rouge was no where in sight.

He went to the ropes that bound Amy up. He cut through them, and pretty soon she was free. She got up, and started crying into the tuft of white fur on Shadow's chest.

"Where's Rouge?" Shadow demanded, not caring about the crying girl. "I traced her phone here."

"She left it at the bar," Amy said between sobs. "I had it in my purse."

She looked up at Shadow. "Why does this fur smell like bleach?"

"We just walked through the sewer, Amy. You're smelling sewer gases."

"No, I'm smelling bleach. I know what bleach smells like, I used to bleach my hair. Do you bleach the white fur on your chest?"

"That's an outrageous and ridiculous assumption."

"You bleach it!"

Shadow quickly pinched a vein on Amy's neck and she collapsed right away into his arms. She would be out for another two hours or so.

Shadow laid Amy down on the ground and turned around to see a man in a ski mask pointing a gun at Shadow's head.

"Take that weapon belt off," The man said angrily.

Shadow shook his head. "Put your gun first."

The man laughed and put his gun down. "Uh oh. Looks like my eight colleagues are just going to back me up. Right, guys?"

There was a "Yes, Sir!" from six differentiated voices. Shadow wondered why the other two men didn't respond.

Shadow's eyes scanned the rows of crates as he tried to locate all of the other gunmen.

Shadow saw the two men next to each other get their heads bumped together as they collapsed to the ground with a sick thud.

The next man, a tall, bulky guy with a sniper rifle, fell next, with a tranquilizer dart sticking out of his neck at an odd angle.

Two other men dropped the same way, with darts sticking out of their neck.

One man dropped, Shadow could see, from a shuriken sticking out of his eye. He was temporarily knocked out, not dead. But he would be blind in his left eye forever.

The final two colleagues dropped at the same time, one holding his crotch, and the other clutching his neck as invisible hands wrapped around his neck and made him pass out.

"Oh dear," Shadow said in a fake state of worry, "It seems that my backup took out your backup."

"Guys?"

No reply.

"Guys? "

No reply again.

Shadow took this opportunity to tackle the man in front of him. That was nine out of nine men in the warehouse collapsed. Shadow knew that crooks like this came in bands of ten, though. Shadow recognized the absence of a group leader.

Shadow saw Amy's body get lifted and slung over an invisible shoulder. Shadow faced the direction Amy was being carried off in. He threw his car keys at Espio and saw Espio catch the keys.

"Take Amy back to her hotel, she's fine, save for being inebriated. Stay at the hotel and don't tell Sonic what's going on, no matter what you have to imply to make up for her whereabouts. Do not leave. I'll be back. I need to find Rouge."

"Won't you need my help?"

"There's only one man guarding Rouge. Trust me."

Espio nodded.

"By the way. Shadow?"

"Yes?"

"If I wreck your car…"

"There is an echidna passed out on my floor for a good five hours because he slightly got on my nerves. All I will say is that I do not advise wrecking that car."

"Okay."

"And take off those shoes and gloves, I don't want it to smell like sewage."


	12. Chapter 10: Of All the Places

Rouge rubbed her head and looked around. She wasn't sure where she was, but she wasn't in the warehouse anymore. She sighed in relief as she realized Amy wasn't with her. She then almost broke into tears as she realized Amy might be dead.

Amy knew too much. Rouge knew that the crooks would probably kill Amy. She shuddered when she realized she would miss Amy.

Of course, the fact that Amy knew Shadow's secret put her in a lot more danger at the moment. No one was supposed to know about the bleach. But, Amy would have no recollection when she woke from her stupor induced by Shadow knocking her out heavily enough so that she wouldn't remember too much.

Rouge, of course, had no idea Amy was safe, and that Rouge herself would actually be safe moderately soon. She sighed and took in her surroundings.

She was in a small room. She blinked when she saw Knuckles lying unconscious on the floor. She… she was in Shadow's apartment. She knew that this meant Shadow was out in search of her, and wouldn't return for days as he searched every building in the city. He'd never consider that she was in his apartment, tied up to… his arm chair?

Rouge took comfort in the way the armchair felt and smelled. As she smelled it a bit more carefully, she realized that his chair smelled like cologne and an unfamiliar smell… Bleach?

But the smell comforted her because she knew that Shadow had been in his apartment recently. He'd come home eventually. She hoped she'd still be alive when that happened. She wasn't sure how long she had.

She looked around the apartment. She was surprised at how loose her ropes were. She was able to slink out of the chair. She looked around while adjusting her top. She was in Shadow's apartment, for sure. There was a small, black and white polaroid on the table of Shadow and a pretty blonde girl. It must have been Maria.

Rouge continued to search the apartment. Why would her captors keep her so loosely guarded? She looked over at the door. It was clearly unlocked. She blinked, not sure what to do. Was she already safe? There was no way. She wouldn't just wake up safe and tied up.

She wondered why the door was unlocked. Her answer came when she saw a motion censor attached to the wall near the door. She picked up a plastic fork that was sitting on the table and threw it at the door. It triggered the motion censor. Guns Rouge hadn't noticed suspended from the ceiling shot the fork in a shockingly silent manner. The laser disintegrated the fork. She groaned.

At first she considered having the laser cut a hole in the door, but even then, she couldn't go through the door because the censor.

She figured she'd find a way to deactivate the censor. She could get rid of the guns, but not the laser. There wasn't a switch. As a spy, she was familiar with how to turn off security systems. She recognized this type right away. Someone had a remote.

She looked around. This was a small apartment. She was shocked Shadow lived here. Her apartment was a good six times larger than this. At least.

Rouge walked into Shadow's room. There was a censor on the window. And, when she looked up, on the air vents. She was trapped in a two room apartment.

She continued throwing Shadow's plastic forks at the door, and eventually, had a nice sized hole in Shadow's door, and a couple bullet holes.

A voice sounded behind her. "I see you woke up."

"Fuck you," she said quietly.

A man in a mask came up to her. He cupped her chin in his hands. "It really is you… I love your work, Rouge. I - I've been robbing museums and jewelry stores left and right to finally come in contact with you. I'm glad that Amy's out of the way. Would you care for a dance?" He wrapped his arms around Rouge's waist.

Rouge pushed the guy off her. "You freak! Who the fuck do you think you are?"

She looked very carefully at the eyes revealed in the ski mask. They were surprisingly empty, and the pupils didn't seem to dilate. She figured as much. Eggman had to be behind this.

He smiled. "I'm your soul mate. I read about you in a magazine once. The second I saw you, I was so attached. Your eyes are so much greener in person."

Rouge wasn't sure whether or not to be flattered or extremely offended. She chose the latter because the guy was flat-out weird.

"I looted your apartment, you know. I have all of your jewels. And undergarments. I also have your bed sheets and wine glasses. One still has your lipstick print on it."

"What now, Eggman?" she shouted at the ceiling. "Got some robot with a disgusting stalker setting?"

The man leaned closer to her. "My dear, I would prefer if you didn't talk about other men when I'm trying to talk to you."

"You're one cleverly programmed robot."

"I'm not a robot. Just a lonely man. You see, my mom forgot me as a child. She got remarried. Then I was just a thing for her to show off at dinner parties. I was a crafty child; a chess champion. But then I realized I could find another woman who had to love me. But I knew no one would unless I made them. Mommy will be... so proud when she learns that we wed." He pulled a gun out of his pocket and held it to Rouge's head.

"Do you love me, Rouge?" His gaze was cold and mechanic. He was either very insane or composed of wires.

"Y-Yes… I love you." She examined the gun, looking for Eggman's crest. Oddly enough, the man seemed to have one issued from the government. He must have taken it from Shadow's room.

He lowered the gun. "I love you, too. Let's name our children after you. All of them."

"What if we have a boy?" Rouge was very scared. The man had the barrel of his gun pressed against her heart now, which was beating like crazy. He may or may not have been a robot, and she simply couldn't be sure.

"Then we'll name him a masculine version of Rouge. Instead of Rouge, we could name him Rogue. You know, switch a letter around."

"Uhm, okay."

"When I first saw you, and read your article, I became a thief. Turns out, I have a knack for it. I mean, I took everything in your apartment. I slept in your clothing. And I found a hair on your toilet seat. I preserved it in ice."

Rouge almost laughed. "Well, trust me, there's more where that came from, but I just got a bikini wax."

"Show me."

"I believe in abstinence."

"No you don't."

Rouge raised one eyebrow. "Strange."

Knuckles slowly sat up. "Where am I?" He asked. He looked around slowly. "Rouge! You're safe!"

The masked man grabbed a bat he had been keeping behind the chair and hit Knuckles in the head. He didn't kill Knuckles. He just knocked him out again.

Rouge stood up. "Who do you think you are? You just knocked out Knuckles!"

The man pulled his gun out again and pointed it at Rouge's head. "Do you love me, darling? Please tell me you love me."

Rouge angrily punched the man in the face and kicked him in the private parts.

"I do not love you!"

The man laid on the floor. Rouge was pretty sure that he was also knocked out, but was shaking too hard from the adrenaline to consider kicking him again. She sat on the couch and got back to throwing forks at the door to calm down.

But what Rouge didn't see was the man slowly stand up and grab his bat.

The bat collided with Rouge's skull. The last face she saw was the man's, but the last face she thought of was, for some odd reason, Shadow's.

Robot employed by Eggman? Carefully hired assassin? Obsessed rival thief? Stalker?

You will find out next chapter, but you should remember to review! Reviews make me smile, and smiling puts me in a good ol' fanfiction-writing mood!

No seriously! Suggestions for improvement, praise on things I may be doing right (Am I? No seriously, this is my first fic, I've got no idea what I'm doing), even subtly placed requests to read/review YOUR stories :) Come on now, take the fifteen seconds to write a review.

Also, flames welcome because they make me giggle.


	13. Chapter 11: Made to Destroy

Shadow's first stop was another building down the street, known as Security Hall. It was named after the base on Prison Island that had been blown up; Rouge knew the place like the back of her gloved hand, and any crook looking for money would definitely use Rouge for codes to the base.

Shadow, of course, knew the codes himself. He entered the building with ease, and turned off the robot guards and lasers within a matter of seconds using his GUN ID card.

He searched the place up and down. He spent about an hour searching every safe. He hated how eerie the place was.

He sighed and left. He ignored his cell phone's ringing. It was only his neighbor, Roger.

After Roger had left a message, Shadow checked the message.

"Heya, Shadow! This here's Roger, your neighbor. There's a little commotion going on in your apartment, I hear. If I were you, I'd check up and make sure you weren't getting robbed."

Shadow figured he had to go home. Knuckles had probably woken up and started freaking out. He had no idea what Knuckles might do, trapped in his apartment. On a brief break but not defeated, he started back towards his apartment.

Shadow couldn't leave Rouge alone in the city. He wondered if she was still alive. He stopped himself before he thought, "What'd missions be like without her?"

His own response to that question, which he said to himself out loud, was "Quiet. Quiet with a lot less tension and nuisances. I could go with just Omega."

He knew he couldn't. They needed Rouge for treasure hunting.

"Why am I even doing this?" he asked himself as he angrily stomped towards the door. "I have no emotional investment here whatsoever."

He looked back at the building. Although he thought about going back in and looking harder, he knew Rouge wasn't in there. He didn't know he'd ever see her again. He felt guilt for the first time in his life when he realized the last thing he said to her face had been spiteful and he had basked in the gloom of her misery.

Shadow sped back to his apartment. He had to get there, fast. He could solve his short term problem and work on the long term problem afterward. He wondered why he had just considered Rouge being gone to be a "long-term" problem. A funeral only lasts an hour…

He climbed the flights of stairs to his apartment as fast as he could.

He raised his eyebrows at the multiple bullet holes in the wall, accompanied by one large burned out circle in his door. He looked through it cautiously.

He could see a motion censor on the wall next to his door. He could also see Knuckles lying on the floor with a wound on his head that Shadow did not inflict. Shadow suddenly tensed. He knew what had happened. He had to get in his apartment but couldn't without getting shot.

He suddenly had a stroke of "Why the hell didn't I think of that?" genius.

He walked over to Roger's. Roger took a few seconds to answer the door.

"Heya, Shadster!"

"Hello, Roger. Please, don't call me that. Now, I need to cut a hole in your wall."

"Wh-What?"

"I know about your meth lab. You run it in here. But you need to put your son through college. I could send you to jail, Roger. Let me cut a hole in your wall."

Roger nodded and watched as Shadow pulled out his cell phone. Shadow's phone flipped up to reveal a knife. Roger blinked.

"That's on your phone?"

"Lots of things are on my phone."

"Amazing, the apps these days, eh?"

"Roger, this is a government issued phone with the most innovative-" he rolled his eyes and stopped mid-sentence, deciding that he could lecture Roger about the difference between apps and programs later.

Shadow looked down at the knife. The tip of the knife became white-hot if you put it near fire for a few seconds because of the special metal. Shadow reached over to turn on the gas stove, but Roger ran at him yelling not to.

"What?" Shadow asked.

"Shadow, how dumb are you? You were about to turn a gas stove on next to my… Potions..."

Shadow groaned. "Okay. I need fire."

Roger pulled a lighter out of his pocket. "I have fire."

Shadow sat his knife over the lighter. As soon as it was hot enough, he slowly started cutting a hole in the wall.

"Won't they see you cutting the wall out?"

"Nope. When I looked in, he was fiddling with something in my room."

"Oh, you might want to hurry, then."

"No kidding."

Shadow continued cutting the wall, trying to move as quickly as possible.

Finally, the drywall came down, and the wall had a hole in it big enough for Shadow to crawl through.

Shadow stepped into his living room. He looked over at the unconscious Knuckles.

He pushed Knuckles through the hole in the wall. "Roger, get him to the hospital or I'll use your stove."

Roger quickly took Knuckles' body down to his car. Shadow saw them drive off when he glanced out the window.

Shadow pulled out his gun and shot each of the censors. He threw one of the plastic forks Rouge hadn't thrown and waited. No reaction. He had nothing to worry about now, and the freak with a Rouge obsession was trapped in Shadow's room.

Shadow had his gun pulled out. He threw open the door to find the masked man sitting next to an unconscious Rouge on the bed. The man was slipping an engagement ring on Rouge's finger.

Shadow suppressed a shudder.

The man jumped up and pulled out his own pistol. Only instead of pointing it at Shadow, the man pointed it at Rouge.

"Shoot and I kill her, too." The man was serious.

Shadow suddenly saw a small impression in the carpet behind the masked man. Espio was in the room. He must have come back to Shadow's apartment before the man had gotten there.

Shadow dropped his weapon. "I guess that I've already lost. I give you freedom to take her. I'm clearly at a point where I cannot save her life. Ah, how it pains me to admit that I've been foiled again..." Shadow saw the man lower his gun. They were both holding back a smirk.

With the man holding his gun loosely, Espio grabbed the gun, and hit the man on the side of the head with it rather than shooting him. The man fell to the ground. Espio tossed Rouge's body at Shadow and made what Shadow assumed was a getaway out of the window. It was surprisingly heavy, due to the fact that Rouge was mostly comprised of very dense muscle.

Shadow looked down at Rouge's body. "I do way too much for you."

Shadow set Rouge on the couch. He returned into the room to find the Masked Man holding Espio at gunpoint. Well, he had a mass of air in his arms.

"Oh, come on, Espio!" he grunted.

The man slowly unlocked the window. He raised the window up so he could get out. He climbed out of the window and threw Espio at Shadow.

Shadow ran over to the window. The man was gone, but Rouge was safe for the time being and Shadow didn't want to chase after the man.

He groaned and walked out into his kitchen. He saw potato chips floating and disappearing with a crunch in his arm chair.

"Fast recovery?" Shadow asked.

"Recovery from what?"

"Oh, just being held at gunpoint."

"Hmm? I left through the window and came back in this way. I just got here."

"So he…"

They both sat in miserable silence, feeling like complete idiots.

"I shouldn't have left that early," Espio mumbled in apology.

"You shouldn't have."

Shadow turned around and punched the wall out of sheer anger.

"We can get him another day, Shadow." Espio said.

"I know."

"Patience is the key in all of life's lessons."

Espio was suddenly visible and purple. "Since we're here," he said matter-of-factly, I think I'll give you some advice my sensei gave me. You know why I like being invisible?"

"Why?" Shadow wasn't even curious. He began to fiddle with his gun belt.

"Well, see, I'm such a feminine color. I always get called Barney, and no matter how tough I am, I can't compensate for the fact that I am purple, right?"

"It really can't compensate. I've gotta agree with you."

"Well, when I'm invisible, I can be whatever color the thing behind me is. I can be a midnight black or a forest green. Brick red, whatever. You know?"

"Yes."

"You don't realize how lucky you are, Shadow. You were made to destroy."

Shadow was silent at first. "Being made to destroy gets in the way a lot more than you'd think."

Rouge stirred. Shadow was over by her right away. She opened her eyes slowly.

"Where am I?" She said faintly.

"My apartment." Shadow was slightly worried.

"Oh, okay. Who are you?"


	14. Chapter 12: Well, Yours is an Adjective

"Shadow," he responded. "My name is Shadow the Hedgehog."

"What a silly name. A noun."

"Your name is Rouge. That's a noun too. And an adjective if we want to be technical."

"Is my name really Rouge?" She rubbed the back of her head. Caked blood chipped off and fell on to Shadow's carpet.

"Yes. Rouge is your name. You're Rouge the bat."

"God damn my parents."

Shadow blinked for a few seconds, not sure what to do.

Espio was hovering over Rouge. "I think she has no idea who or where she is."

"No fucking shit," Shadow muttered, examining Rouge's eyes carefully. He squinted a bit as he tried to recall the symptoms of long-term and short-term amnesia and give an accurate diagnosis.

Rouge smiled widely. "I ask this with the kindest intentions, but are you a boy or a girl?"

Espio looked at Shadow. "See, that's what I meant. So feminine."

Shadow shook his head. "This is Espio. He and I just saved your life. Again."

"I'm sure I've saved you a few times."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Doesn't even know who she is and she's milking the few times she's saved me."

He looked around the room and finally found a phone book. He pointed at it and told Espio to call a doctor right away.

Rouge sat up all the way and whispered, "I'm not dating that purple guy, am I?"

"Not of which I'm aware."

"Oh thank god. How mortifying."

Rouge picked up the photo of Shadow and Maria. "Who's this? Is this your girlfriend? She's really pretty."

"She's dead."

"Oh. I'm sorry. Do you have any food? I'm starving."

Shadow handed Rouge the chips Espio had been eating, shocked at the sudden personality change. He had seen this happen to GUN agents who were punched too hard during training, etc, and was pretty sure that this would last her a day or two.

Espio handed Shadow his car keys. "Take her to the hospital. Here's the number and the address. Go before she loses any more memory."

Shadow grabbed his keys, nodded in thanks, and made Rouge come with him to his car.

Rouge looked out the window in awe. "What a pretty town! Where is this? It's a wonderful little area! Look, that couple must be so in love!"

"That is a prostitute purchase, Rouge. In all technicality, I should be arresting that man right now, but I've got bigger matters to deal with."

"Oh." She rolled down her window. "YOU BAD, BAD WOMAN!" She yelled.

Shadow put his palm to his face. This was going to be a terrible day. Very, very bad.

After ten long minutes and painfully chipper conversation with Rouge, they arrived at the doctor's. Since they were there so early, they got in right away.

The doctor smiled as he walked to the pair, carrying a clipboard; Shadow recognized the limp.

"Dr. Meyers! What a surprise." Shadow now knew he'd have to spend hours watching some old douche pretend Rouge needed a physical to fix her brain.

Surprisingly, the doctor got right on the case.

After an hour or so, the doctor emerged holding his clipboard. He looked at Shadow sympathetically.

"I'm afraid her memory will never come back."

Shadow's eyes widened as he realized he couldn't bear the thought that Rouge would have to live like him, with no recollection of the best times of her life.

The doctor finally smiled. "Just kidding. Give her a day and a good night's sleep, keep watch on her and give her this pill at nine PM."

Shadow sighed. "I could sue you."

The doctor shrugged. "Word got around, I heard you were selling the drugs I prescribed you. I took the opportunity for revenge."

Shadow groaned. This was why he hated Westopolis.

Shadow walked Rouge out to his car. She had a strange, curious look.

"What's on your mind, Rouge? It's clearly killing you to ask me and your fidgeting is just about driving me insane."

Rouge's eyes were wide open in an unblinking stare. "I just had this weird, random thought that there was a point in which I was in a small cell, holding these big, colorful gems. There was something ticking, right next to me. I was talking into a walkie-talkie and then out of no where you appeared, and you yelled something, and we were suddenly safe. Just like that." She snapped her thumb and finger together.

"That's not a random thought, Rouge. Your memories are coming back. You'll probably wake up tomorrow remembering everything."

"I did all of that? I must be a hero!"

"Not really. You're actually very manipulative and you use your seductiveness to get everything you want with ease."

"Oh. That's okay, too, I guess."

They rode in silence. Rouge was still staring out the window. Shadow couldn't help but be amused at her naivety.

"Shadow?" she asked, looking out the window.

"What?" he tried to be sympathetic -even empathetic- but was too easily agitated.

"I'll regret asking you this, I think, but are we-"

"No."

"Oh. It's just that you've done so much for me, you know."

He turned to her, the innocent-for-the-time-being white bat who was, for the first time, in his situation. He examined her face, her changed facial expression. And, for some reason, he quietly replied, "You'll get your memories back and learn that you're more of a hero than I am."

When they got home, Rouge sat on the couch and had a cup of coffee. Espio flopped down in the arm chair, and Shadow assumed his regular cross-armed position on the cushion next to Rouge's.

Rouge finally spoke up through the silence. "I remember a lot more now."

Shadow nodded. "We'll have to stay home and observe your actions all day. I think you'll be back to your usual self tomorrow."

"I hope."

"I don't." Shadow muttered.

Shadow handed Rouge a pill at nine PM, just like the doctor told him to.

"Good luck getting that down," he said. "See you in the morning. The couch is all yours, and there's an extra blanket that I brought out for you earlier."

"Goodnight."

"Good… night."

Rouge's voice had suddenly returned to its regular tone. "I can't believe you actually said goodnight to me. I'm moved."

"Go to bed," he snapped.

"Care to tell me where I live? My middle name? Birthday? Favorite food?"

"You'll remember it all in the morning. Be patient-hard as it will be for you."

"I guess he'll be staying, too," Shadow mumbled, pointing to Espio, who was asleep on the chair. He shrugged and went into his room, closing the door.

"Shadow?" Rouge whispered after a few minutes. She figured he would be able to hear her through the thin, old wall.

"What?" He responded angrily.

"Thanks for letting me stay."

"Whatever."

There was silence for a moment.

"Shadow?" Rouge whispered again.

"Yes, Rouge?" He spat.

"How is it that this couch came to smell like bleach?"

"Because I… I keep it clean."

"With bleach? I mean, no offense, but this apartment is a rat-hole. The last smell you'd expect is bleach. Maybe booze and sex, or something."

"None taken, you'll wake up and realize that it'd actually suit your apartment pretty well, too."

"Goodnight."

"Go to sleep, Rouge."

Shadow woke up the next morning to the smell of coffee. He rolled over in his bed to face his doorway. From what he could see through the door, Espio was awake, but meditating. Rouge was no where to be seen. Shadow didn't have that big of a view from his doorway, though, so she might have been in the apartment from what he figured.

He slowly rolled out of bed. The gray, messy sheets on his bed clung to his toes. He was slightly annoyed at how cold the floor was when he put his feet down.

"Fuck," he said miserably. What a positive way to start off the day.

Rouge was bustling around in the kitchen making coffee. Her jumpsuit was wrinkled and slightly lopsided, but she was evidently too groggy from the previous day's events to really notice, or for that matter, care.

"What a surprise," Shadow murmured, still slightly asleep.

"Not for you," she began. "If you want coffee, get your own damn coffee. I'm making breakfast, but it's for me. If you want pancakes, make your own damn pancakes."

Espio lifted one eyelid. "Pancakes?"

"I don't need your 'damn pancakes,'" Shadow said in his casual, grumpy tone. He poured himself a cup of coffee and walked in circles around the room.

Espio groaned. "I have to start fasting for mind clarity for three days starting today. Can we stop talking about 'Damn Pancakes'?"

Rouge smirked. "Stop fasting and eat some damn pancakes, Espio," she said with a laugh.

Shadow finally sighed and sat in his chair. "Miserable to have you back, Rouge."

"It sucks that I have to be back, Shadow."

"Poor you."

Espio soon left in hopes of evading the temptation of food. When Espio was out of the door, Rouge immediately sat down next to Shadow.

"Shadow, while I was slowly gaining back memories, I realized how many times I would have died if you hadn't been on the missions with me."

"I'm very surprised you're just coming to this conclusion."

"I know. So, I want to… apologize… for all the times I've acted like a total bitch to you and disregarded how much you've done for me."

"Wow, you must still have a little memory to regain."

Rouge stood up. "See? That's the problem with you. No one even has the balls to make a kind gesture to you, and then when they do, you act like they're beneath you and you're so much better than them because you're some cold, friendless, miserable, miserable person! I think you need to pull your head out of your ass, suck it up, and… Shadow, she's dead."

Shadow's nostrils flared and his eyes flickered from his usual hateful look to one more satanic looking. He looked like he could destroy the planet with that face.

"Out of my house."

"I'm sorry, that came out and-"

"If you aren't out of this apartment in five seconds I'll shoot you so many times there won't be anything left of your body for the cops to claim I killed."

"Shadow, I-"

"Four."

"I'm sorry."

"Three."

"Put the gun down."

"Two."

"Fuck you."

Rouge walked out of the apartment. For good measure, Shadow shot a quick bullet near Rouge, so she wouldn't come back. It didn't hit her via ricochet like he half-hoped.

That night, Shadow got up and grabbed a little disc he had found aboard ARK once; it was titled "Maria".

And then, he did the unexpected.

He crawled through the hole into Roger's apartment and tossed the disc in the first flame he found. Shadow watched as the fire surrounded the little disc. And with a final pop noise, all of the memories were gone.

And it felt good.


	15. Chapter 13: I Know What You're Up To

While Shadow was setting fire to a small disc, Rouge was driving around Westopolis in a rental car. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew that her hotel room wasn't safe. Rouge had been assured via a phone call that Amy was under the regretful but watchful eye of Sonic, and would be just fine for the duration of the weekend.

Amy felt safe around Sonic. Even though Sonic was engaged to be married to Princess Sally, Amy still saw a chance. Rouge had to admit she admired Amy's perseverance. Rouge didn't feel safe around anyone anymore.

"There has to be more to this than a stalker," Rouge thought as she turned a street corner. "It doesn't make sense. There's more to this. There has to be."

She abruptly pulled over to organize her thoughts.

However, whether it was fate or pure coincidence, Rouge found that she had pulled up in front of the Paradise Wind apartments. She looked the building up and down, approximating the length of Shadow's fall.

With a morbid laugh she said, "Nice one, Shadow."

She slowly looked at the door, illuminated by the light from the lobby. She took a few cautious steps toward it, but then turned around and went back to her car to grab a gun before going upstairs. She knew what she was going to do.

Opening the door and smiling at the man behind the lobby desk, she began to walk towards the elevator. From the corner of her eye, she saw the headlights of a car as it pulled up in the parking space behind her.

She hammered the "Close door" button in the elevator. She had to beat him to the roof.

Since the Paradise Wind apartments were in the tallest building in Westopolis, a ride to the top could easily take one to two minutes. Since it was so late, no one was going up or down the elevator, and she made the trip up in about a minute.

Walking timidly to the edge of the rooftop, she pretended to be fascinated by the view, and even went as far as to talk to herself about Shadow's fall. She looked over the edge of the brick wall that came up to her waist. Obviously, it served the purpose of preventing people from falling. Some people, such as Shadow, brought the falls on themselves.

She could hear the footsteps behind her. Blood was pounding in her ears and her heart was racing. She gently reached to her side, making it look like she was pulling out a cell phone.

"I am aware you know that I'm here," the voice whispered.

"Good," she replied.

The wind picked up. The hair Rouge had that was long enough to blow in the wind was billowing.

Another quiet step.

"What do you want me for?" Rouge asked, still not looking behind her.

"Companionship, perhaps?" was the response.

"No, it's not."

"You're smart."

And with that, the man rushed at her. She whipped around, pulling out her gun. The man stopped dead in his tracks, but pulled out a gun of his own.

"One of us is going to shoot the other first," he muttered.

"Says you."

"Well, your boyfriend isn't here to save you, is he?"

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Aren't you supposed to be my fiance, anyway?"

"You know as well as I do I'm only fascinated by you because I want to know how you've stolen the things you have. I couldn't give a damn about you."

So it was all an act. Rouge had been right-it didn't make sense because he wasn't a stalker. He just didn't want her to see that the only reason he ever watched her was in hopes of witnessing her steal something-and he had already accomplished his mission when he saw her steal the amulet. But the thing about Rouge was that no one had ever really caught her. He had been lucky.

Rouge pulled down on the trigger. The noise the collision made was both expected and unexpected - it was metal on metal, not a sick squelching sound.

She walked over the the lifeless machine.

"I knew it," she mumbled, peeling away the fleshy plastic to reach the metal center.

A robot. Of course he was. It was always a robot.

She reached her hand out to touch the "face" of the robot. After removing her gloves, she carefully clawed away the skin under the robot's "eye", which was just a circular plastic ball. There was something odd about the right eye - it wasn't as reflective as the left. She recognized immediately that it was a camera.

She leaned towards the eye.

"Eggman, I know what you're up to."


	16. Chapter 14: You've Got Yourself a Case

"So you're telling me that this master thief is a robot employed by Dr. Eggman?"

"Yes, Chief. That is exactly what I'm telling you."

"Rouge, I have a question for you."

She nodded, but then remembered she wasn't on video call. "Yes?"

"What are you smoking?"

She groaned. "I know you think Eggman is in a high security prison, but how can we be so sure?"

The Chief sounded completely sick of Rouge. "Don't question me, Rouge. This thief is not employed by Eggman. It was probably just a robot left over that we never managed to find, or something of the like."

Rouge exhaled heavily through her nose. "You know just as well as I do that we found every Eggbot," she snapped. "You can't explain how this is happening without admitting that Eggman might not be where we've always assumed he was."

"I am hanging up, Rouge, and you can call me when you have a plausible story."

The line went dead. Rouge sat down on the ground next to the robot and drew her knees up to her chest. She rested her chin on her knees and sighed. For the first time in a long time, she just wanted to sit and cry.

She refused.

"I can do this," she mumbled. "It doesn't matter whether or not he believes me."

Everything from her apartment had to go somewhere. Somewhere in the world sat wine glasses, bedsheets, and countless jewels. Priceless jewels.

The City Jewel.

"Fuck!" Rouge exclaimed as she realized that she had lost the City Jewel to the robber.

But what would Eggman need jewels like that for? There was no value to the jewels for him - they weren't Chaos Emeralds.

Unless he was just trying to shake her. He just wanted to get her out of the way. Rouge was the only person in the world capable of telling someone where a master thief had gone after a loot . Eggman was probably just after the Emeralds again.

She'd have to go back to Station Square.

She needed a reason to call the Chief. If she could just get him to allow her to investigate, she would get a crew and all the warrants she needed (and free gas). She could pretend that there wasn't more to the situation she had yet to uncover - yes, that was what she would do - and say it was just another thief. Just another thief endangering the Chaos Emeralds.

"Hello?"

"Chief. I figured it all out. Whoever this master thief is, he's after the Emeralds."

"Obviously."

"I need to investigate."

"You do that. I'm sure you have plenty of your own money to fund an investigation since we've been paying your bills."

She sighed in exasperation. "I want a licensed investigation."

"How are you gonna get one?"

"I think that I'll tell you that whoever this thief is, he has the City Jewel. Which, by the way, was not supposed to be given to me in the first place and is now missing. And that's all on you, not me."

The Chief was silent, clearly thinking. He finally sighed and gave in. "You've got yourself a case, Rouge."

"Good. Now I'm going to hang up on you, and you call me back when you've got my case organized."

With a smirk, she hung up.


	17. Chapter 15: Me and Me Alone

Shadow rolled out of bed the next morning (with his same usual exclamation of an obscenity when his feet touched the floor) and, for a moment, forgot everything that had gone down the previous day. He was completely unaware that at that very moment, Rouge was on a flight back to Station Square. He found out almost immediately after waking up.

He had originally rolled out of bed because his cell phone was ringing - it was Sonic.

"Yes?" he answered. Shadow wasn't the least bit groggy because in all technicality, sleep was not a necessity. He had had plenty of sleep.

"Shadow, I just wanted to tell you we're all driving back to Station Square today."

"Good riddance."

"I figured you'd say that."

"Maybe you actually have a few brain cells clumped together somewhere in your head."

Shadow heard Sonic groan on the other end of the line. "I knew you'd be difficult. Regardless, I wanted to inform you not to worry about Rouge, she's taking a plane home. She's got a case she needs to work on."

Shadow's head snapped up - that got his attention. "Case? What case?"

Sonic shrugged, but obviously, Shadow didn't see it. "I don't know. She's always got a case."

"More like a headcase," he muttered."

"Sonic, I have to go," Shadow said suddenly. "I have business to attend to."

"You always do."

Shadow hung up. Rouge had found something out. Another piece had been fit into the puzzle. And in all honesty, Shadow found himself dreadfully curious.

Curious as he was, he didn't actually care. He wanted to see how it shook out - mostly because he could sense that whatever was happening, it had something to do with the Chaos Emeralds. And something to do with him as a result.

Shadow did, however, have business to attend to - starting with the holes in his wall and door. It was his job to fund and repair any damage done to his small apartment, regardless of whether or not it was caused by a thief, who wasn't really human at all.

He looked around his small apartment. With one turn of the head, he could see into every room. After all, if he stood in the living room, the kitchen was two steps away where the tile began and his bedroom wasn't much further. The apartment was a mess. Not just because of everything that had gone down the previous day, but the days beforehand as well; the sink was filled with dishes splattered with pancake batter and the table still had some plates on it. Unfinished glasses of milk had solidified and were starting to give off a putrid smell. Shadow had a door to replace and a wall to patch up, but he figured that he should start with the smaller stuff.

So with a sigh, Shadow removed his gloves, replaced them with yellow latex ones, and started to rinse off the dishes. He tried not to express his disgust as he shook the curdled milk out of the glasses and washed it down the garbage disposal. He scrubbed the dishes, ashamed to be partaking in such a menial chore. He was the ultimate life form - how dare the world make it so he had to wash his own dishes? Somewhere, in a place within him that he had yet to discover, Shadow the hedgehog had the capability of destroying the planet in seconds.

But the ability to initiate the Apocalypse doesn't get the dishes clean.

When the dishes were done, he wiped down the counter tops, which was an action he completed quickly since the kitchen was so small and only had two counters.

He picked up all the left over bits of plastic forks that weren't disintegrated, and even found the small gold band the thief had tried to slip on Rouge's finger as part of his scare tactic. He examined the ring carefully, then dropped it into the sink, where it spun around until finally going down the drain.

He vacuumed the floors, which were covered in ash and other bits of debris that result when plastic forks are disintegrated by motion-censor guns on your carpet.

He was done in about two hours. He made his bed and washed his windows just because he could feel that he was on a roll and reasoned that he'd have to do it eventually anyways.

Nestled behind all of his cleaning supplies was a half-empty bottle of bleach.

By the end of the day he had made a trip to a home repair store, installed a new door and had begun patching up the wall to the best of his ability. Yes, it had been a productive day.

He sat quietly in the old gray arm chair that sat in his living room. He had only just removed the ropes from the chair.

_"For all those people, on that planet... give them a chance to be happy."_

He shook his head a little, clearing his thoughts.

But he kept lapsing back into that nostalgic reminiscence in which he was yet again on ARK.

_"Shadow, she's dead."_

He sighed. He had to find a way to occupy himself before his brain got the best of him and he began to spend all of his days moping the way he usually had before the fall from the roof of the Paradise Wind apartments.

Thankfully, an opportunity to keep him occupied came in the form of a phone call.

He answered the phone with a cold, blunt, "What do you want?"

It was the Chief, calling from Station Square. "Shadow, I have a case for you."

"For me and me alone?" Shadow wanted to make sure he wouldn't be put on the same team with - no! He didn't give a damn if she was on his team or not; the reason he didn't want her to be part of this investigation was definitely just because he had never liked her... he had never been even just the slightest bit fond of her.

"That is confidential information that you cannot be given until you sign onto this case. However, you can trust me that you will be able to choose the vast majority of your team. It's believed that the Chaos Emeralds are in danger. Maybe even the Master Emerald."

"Of course they're in danger. They're always in danger, that's why we keep them with the Freedom Fighters."

"Obviously, you have one. That makes you part of this case."

Shadow nodded to himself. This was how every case started. The Chaos Emeralds were presumed to be in danger, as they always were, and someone would steal them, and then it would take several weeks of tracking and running through exotic lands to find the hideout of the thief. It was always that way.

"I'll take the case."

Back in Station Square, the Chief sat at his desk, understanding that he had lied to Shadow. It was not a case intended only for Shadow, it was none other than Rouge's case. If Rouge was going to blackmail the Chief himself, he'd show her the consequences. He sensed Rouge's love-hate relationship with Shadow, and thought that pairing the two on a mission would be the ultimate way to guarantee their failure. If they could stop arguing for a second, he reasoned, they would definitely solve the case. But there was no way.

All the while, he could send Sonic and the others on a quest of their own, and he would get all the credit when the Emeralds were officially safe and this thief was gone. Yes, the Chief was a man who knew how to get elected to another term. The secret was making the public feel unnaturally safe while he was in charge of the army. And his army of robots was going swimmingly, even though he just hated having to make deals with Eggman.

"Rouge?" he asked innocently when she answered the phone.

"What?"

"I have an investigative crew for you. Your departure will be on Monday."

"Excellent."

She added, "You didn't put me on the same crew as Sonic, did you?"

"Of course not, my dear," the Chief responded soothingly. "I know how things work out when I put the two of you on the same crew."

The truth was, almost anyone put on the same crew as Rouge was guaranteed to be successful in their investigation.

Everyone working with Rouge was guaranteed success.

Everyone working with Shadow was guaranteed success.

Rouge working with Shadow, however, was far from successful chemistry - it was more like two very unstable and incompatible chemicals.


	18. Chapter 16: What Shadow Was Hiding

Hi, All! It's SilverSepulchre! I just wanna let you all know that I started a Sonic Blog, in which I sort of provide commentary, tips, (lots of sarcastic commentary), etc, for Sonic games. I started by blogging SA2B, because it's my favorite. You should check it out...

.com

...That is all I have to say. Author comment over. Although, PS, I love reviews. I mean, I've got 17 reviews total for this story, which is less than one review per chapter posted...

"You've got to be kidding me," Shadow mumbled, not taking his eyes off of the Chief. "I refuse to be sent on another mission with her."

Rouge put her hands on her hips and glared at Shadow. "Chief," she warned, "This is my mission and I say he's off my staff."

"You're such a grateful person," Shadow spat, turning to stare disapprovingly at Rouge. "I saved your life less than a god damn week ago."

"I could have saved myself."

He grunted in disbelief and crossed his arms. "You couldn't save yourself on Prison Island and you can't save yourself now."

"For someone who can't remember much about his past, you sure have a knack for remembering your glory days."

The Chief slammed his fist on his desk and the room became silent. The snow in the little Station Square snow globe on his desk shuffled around in the glass ball, causing a mini-storm in the decorative plastic city.

"Stop arguing, the both of you!" he shouted, looking back and forth between the two. "You are acting like children! This is a professional investigation, not a god damn junior high debate club."

"Chief, this investigation will never work out if you put me on crew with him."

Holding back a smile, and knowing all too well that Rouge was correct, Chief responded bitterly, "I expect more from my best special ops agent."

Rouge's ears flattened out as she narrowed her eyes at Shadow. "You better put me in charge of this or else it will become a 'Who-am-I?' fest."

Shadow rolled his eyes, starting to tap his foot subtly because he wasn't quite sure what to do with the adrenaline rush he was experiencing from outright feelings of anger, betrayal, and that wonderful feeling of being seriously annoyed. "It would be in your best interests to put me in charge or else this will become an international jewel heist."

Feeling as though he hadn't presented a good enough case, he added, "Not to mention, you took that anklet off of her, there's no telling what she'll be able to do now that you're not monitoring her."

The Chief raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You two are speaking as if you thought I intended on sending you two off alone together on a world-wide trek."

"We aren't?" they asked in unison.

"Of course not," the Chief replied. "I have your entire mission plotted out and I intend on sending three others with you for investigative purposes. I had them on a different mission but they were screwing it up, so I figure they'd be a dandy group to keep an eye on your actions."

"That is an excellent idea," Rouge conceded. "After all, you can never be too sure of Shadow. How many times has Eggman employed him now?"

"As many times as I have saved the planet," Shadow shot in response. "Particularly that last time when we finally caught him."

The Chief gently raised his palm to his forehead out of aggravation. "When I said 'your actions', I was referring to both of you."

Shadow and Rouge both slowly turned their heads to face one another, staring the other down. Rouge slowly ran her eyes across Shadow's face in search for any underlying emotion; there wasn't any. Shadow eventually turned away from her to ask, "So who are the other three?"

As if on cue, the purple chameleon slipped quietly into the room, pausing to take a grand bow that involved a humble sweep of the hand mixed with a sarcastic expression. Vector barged into the room, not even taking the time to make a memorable entrance. The music from his headphones was loud enough for everyone in the room to sample, much to their own chagrin. And finally, Charmy slowly marched in, not really paying attention to the people but rather paying attention to the many random trinkets in the large office like the massive globe in the corner and the fancy fax machine.

"Hey, Rouge..." Charmy said, seeming distracted. He was still staring at the large fax machine. "Hey, Shadow."

Disregarding the Chaotix's entrance, the Chief said, "I looked at the area you mapped out, Rouge, and I think it'd be best that you all started out in Soleanna."

Rouge's eyes widened. "What?" she almost shouted. "Soleanna is incredibly unlikely to be a possible base! It's a tourist trap!"

Vector interrupted the two. "What exactly is the problem here? I don't even know why we're on this case."

"I don't know why you're on this case, either," Shadow grumbled.

Rouge rolled her eyes at Shadow's comment then turned to face Vector, who was looking at a world map to estimate the distance between Station Square and Soleanna. "Well, Vector, I think Eggman has a plan-"

The Chief cut her off. "Eggman has nothing to do with this, I assure you. We have him imprisoned in maximum security. The only thing getting out of his cell is circulating air."

Rouge sighed a little, but continued. "Anyways, when my house was robbed, the thief got off with my Chaos Emerald. We believe that it's only a matter of time until the others begin to disappear."

"You guys are always on wild goose chases for those emeralds, why don't you just lock 'em up?"

"Because they're actually safer with us than they are in a vault. Also because we need them in good hands in case of national crisis. One paid off vault guard and it's game over for the world."

Rouge was right - it was much easier to crack open a safe than it was to get an emerald from one of the GUN agents (the ones who didn't just toss Chaos Emeralds on the floor like they weren't even tin foil, anyways).

Vector didn't buy a word of what she said. "I don't see it that way," he began. "After all, it seems that robbing your apartment was a cinch. You seem to be pretty lax when it comes to taking care of the jewels that can bring forth the very end of the world."

"I-"

"Vector, we haven't had someone try to steal an emerald in three years since Eggman was arrested, and Rouge is, if anything, notorious for not treating gems in terms of their power. If anyone is at fault, it's Chief-for letting her take care of an emerald."

Rouge looked at Shadow, opened her mouth to say something, and closed it again. She wasn't sure whether or not he had just said something that could be seen as nice.

Shadow continued. "Besides, you're also acting as though the Chaos Emeralds are no big deal. 'Wild goose chase'? Do you consider the constant quest to save the planet to be a wild goose chase?"

Vector suddenly became very interested in the floor and didn't say anything else.

"I agree with Shadow," the Chief said somberly. "The Emeralds are not only our top priority but the world's."

Without a word, Shadow walked over to a pad of paper on an easel that sat in the corner of the room, left over from a meeting in the office. He flipped over the page that had been scrawled on and began to write on the board.

"There are seven Emeralds plus the Master Emerald," he stated as used the marker to write out a paraphrased version of what he said. "I have the red one. Rouge had the violet one."

He made a list: Shadow - Red; Rouge - Violet.

"Sonic, of course, has the blue one."

Shadow - Red; Rouge - Violet; Sonic - Blue.

"Knuckles has the Master Emerald."

Shadow - Red; Rouge - Violet; Sonic - Blue; Knuckles - ME.

"Tails has the gold and the grey. Gold is currently powering The Tornado, grey is currently powering the rest of his lab."

Shadow - Red; Rouge - Violet; Sonic - Blue; Knuckles - ME; Tails - Gold, Grey.

"You," he said as he pointed to the chief, "have the green Emerald."

Shadow - Red; Rouge - Violet; Sonic - Blue; Knuckles - ME; Tails - Gold, Grey; Chief - Green.

"And the teal, somehow, was bestowed upon these blundering idiots."

Shadow - Red; Rouge - Violet; Sonic - Blue; Knuckles - ME; Tails - Gold, Grey; Chief - Green; Chaotix - Teal.

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Thanks for covering everything we actually knew, Shadow."

"You're missing the point," he retorted. "We need to get all of these emeralds rounded up before these people are targeted. You had some kind of android with a stalker-style personality. If that's just the beginning, God knows what this person has planned for the rest of us. Particularly - and I hate that I have to care about this and make it a top priority - Sonic."

"He has a point yet again," Rouge admitted with a slight sigh. "I don't like Sonic either, but that guy's gonna be the last one targeted and he'll get hit the hardest."

"Fine, I'll have the Emeralds sent up here, we can keep them in a top-security case."

Rouge and Shadow both immediately began to shake their heads.

"Oh, no, you won't," Rouge warned. "That is a recipe for disaster. The thief expects us to do that. We are having those emeralds sent to the safest place for them and I'll pay for their trip up there if I have to."

Everyone in the room looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"How dumb are you people?" she demanded, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm talking about Angel Island." She pointed to the small island on the map.

"That can be arranged," the Chief said, sadly acknowledging mentally all of the paperwork that would have to be done.

"Hold up!" Vector exclaimed. "I still don't know what the hell is going on here!"

Suddenly, Rouge realized just why it was that the Chaotix were so out of the loop - she had a lot more explaining to do than she realized.

"Just before we went to Westopolis to visit Shadow," she said with a small hint of malevolence, "Chief put me on a case. There's a gem thief that's been taking important gems around the world. Particularly city jewels."

"The most important of the gems stolen was the diamond that was harvested in the White Jungle mines back in 1912," the Chief continued for Rouge. "It disappeared two months ago. Obviously, the public-particularly Central City, the city whose jewel it was-wasn't told about the heist because we don't want them to worry."

"As you know," Rouge began, "A jewel can only be considered a City Jewel if that jewel was found in the surrounding natural area and contains power similar to that of a Chaos Emerald to a lesser extent."

Shadow pointed at his board. "This thief has the violet Emerald as well as two City Jewels, as far as we know. He was in Westopolis last, as seen by his placement of some androids and guards in that warehouse, which means that the Westopolis Rubies will be gone by tomorrow and there's not much we can do."

The Chief smirked at Shadow, but no one noticed. "Exactly, Shadow. Now perhaps you three should leave so I can discuss further plans with these two." He gestured at the Chaotix and then at the door.

"Alright, but one more question," Espio said calmly. "What happens if he gets all of the City Jewels?"

The Chief sighed. "The Chaos Emeralds, as you know, control time and space. The City Jewels of Mobius are a means of substitution. That is, if you have six Chaos Emeralds and two City Jewels, you will have the power of seven Chaos Emeralds. If he captures enough, he will have enough to control the Master Emerald, and even add more fuel to the fire with extra City Jewels."

"And he can do anything with that," Shadow said quietly.

"How many City Jewels are there?" Charmy asked, finally speaking.

"Four," Rouge replied. "Station Square had an amethyst; Central City had the diamond; Westopolis has rubies, which were originally one ruby until it was shattered in 1952; Soleanna has a sapphire."

Espio simply nodded and followed the other two Chaotix out of the door.

"Now," the Chief started, "We need to draw up a gameplan."

"Actually," Rouge said, sounding aggravated, "You need to get those Emeralds sent here immediately while I've got my eyes on you to make sure it happens."

"Fine," the Chief said, "But if you don't mind, I would like to do that tomorrow when my secretary isn't out sick. She has all of the contact information I need."

Rouge gave him her signature Are-You-Serious look, but threw her hands up in the air and said, "Fine! I would like to do this all tomorrow, too. I'm going to go grab some lunch, go home, and figure this out myself."

She stormed out of the door, ticked off as hell, and Chief realized that she had been serious.

"Well now isn't this convenient, Shadow."

Shadow stared at the Chief coldly with a silent, unblinking stare. He was trembling out of anger, out of fear. As soon as he was sure Rouge had left the building, he flew into a sudden rage.

"You swore you wouldn't put me at risk like this!" Shadow shouted at the Chief.

"You swore you would get me those jewels at all cost directly after I swore that. All bets originally made are off, and I recommend you better control your exaggerations the next time you make a deal with me."

"You can't do this. You'll get caught."

"Shadow, you know my plan. Eggman thinks he's in control, and he thinks those Emeralds are his, but you and I know to whom they truly belong."

"I made you this promise years ago. I didn't know what I was doing."

"I held you to your word. The world is ours, Shadow."

"I don't want to be a part of this."

The Chief rolled his eyes. "You lived with her to watch her tactics. I am getting her on this mission and you're going to hold her down. That violet Emerald will be in my safe tomorrow and I expect the rest of the Emeralds to get intercepted on their way to Angel Island and it's on you. Angel Island is off the coast of Soleanna, as you know, which is where you are going in less than a week. This is going exactly according to plan, and you will go through with it or it will only be mine."

Shadow nodded begrudgingly. Were it not for the fact that he knew the plan was flawless, he would have said no and tried to stop the Chief. But there were no gaps in the plan for domination because Shadow himself had put it together long ago when he had woken up for the first time in fifty years.

"And what do I do if Rouge finds out what we're up to?"

_"You kill her."_


	19. Chapter 17: This Place Stinks

"I can't kill her," Shadow protested. "That would be-"

"A violation of the law, which we can sort out when we _control_ the law," the Chief replied with a serpentine smile. "You keep forgetting that this plan terminates with the world being ours."

"I don't want a part of this." Shadow tried to unclench the fists he had slammed on the desk in an attempt to calm himself. Carefully backing away from the Chief, he continued to clench and unclench his fists as if the friction took away his anger.

"You won't be saying that you want no part of this when you see all the money we'll be in control of. Economy crisis? Not anymore. We'll all be one united country."

Shadow shook his head. "I can't kill a person."

The Chief started to laugh sarcastically as he asked, "Need I remind you of the things you did for Black Doom?"

"You know that I was misled. I forgot-"

"Of course you forgot. You take one blow to the head and you forget your own damn name. Hell, if I threw this snow globe at you right, I could just recruit you when you woke up."

Shadow had yet to stop shaking his head. "You won't get away with this."

The Chief smiled. "Of course I won't. Not alone, to be sure. That's why I hired you. It's also why I'm toying with Eggman. He thinks he's running this operation, but he's merely supplying some bots. Once you have Tails making that chip they'll all be under GUN's control anyways."

Shadow glared at the Chief for a few seconds and realized it was too late to back out. His head still shaking back and forth in disbelief, he dashed out of the room without a word.

The days passed slowly. Rouge and Shadow had met with the Chief on a Monday, knowing their intended date of departure was to be put off. Tuesday passed and Shadow begrudgingly watched the Chief make phone calls and convince Tails that yes, he would have to switch to his solar energy panels for the next few days, because his Chaos Emerald was in danger. Yes, Knuckles, it would be greatly appreciated if you could meet with Shadow to see that those Emeralds make it into their place on the altar. Sonic, could you send yours on its way?

Rouge, unaware that she was about to go on a mission in which knowledge could lead to her own death, was actually excited. This was her chance to receive the recognition she needed to be promoted. Chief of the Special Ops department was a career that would give her access to thousands of treasuries.

On the scheduled day for departure, Rouge woke up to a ceaseless banging on her door. The pounding wouldn't stop-it sounded like someone was trying to break in. Grabbing a gun from her newly purchased nightstand while trying to wipe sleep from her eyes, she stumbled out of bed groggily.

She threw her door open while carelessly cocking her pistol, brandishing it at the person hammering on her door.

She finished rubbing her eyes to look at her visitor-Shadow.

She looked like she was about to punch him, but she put her pistol down. He smirked and slid past her, flopping down on her couch.

"Do you realize what time it is?" she shouted, pointing angrily at the clock she kept above the door. Three in the morning.

"We need to get an early start," he said nonchalantly. "I thought you were in charge of this mission! You really ought to care about leaving early. To think that the leader of this mission values her sleep over her career."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Give me two minutes."

"You weren't even packed yet?" he asked, still sounding smug.

Suddenly, she stomped over to Shadow and grabbed him by the collar of his leather jacket.

"You listen very carefully now," she hissed. "I am in charge of this mission, and we leave when I say we leave; we pack when I say we pack; and we barge into my living room when I say we do; thus far, you have failed to follow protocol. I could get you on probation for that, so don't act so God damn high and mighty."

For good measure, she tightened her grip and whispered, "I am not afraid to enforce my authority. Don't think I'd ever go easy on you."

With that, she strutted into her room and began to pack.

She didn't pack a change of clothes; no one packed clothes because they ended up having to dive in water, anyways, so much they stayed quite clean.

Rouge didn't bother to tell Shadow that it was time to leave, she just opened the door and waited for him to walk through it. Locking the door behind her, they were off.

"If the train to Soleanna departs at Station Square West Station, why are we heading east?" she asked as Shadow led her down the street.

"You'll see," he assured her as he turned down an alley.

The maze of alleys in Station Square was a labyrinth that very few people had learned by heart; Rouge and Shadow both knew them very well, however, and Rouge realized that they were only heading into the vast commercial expanse of downtown. Shadow was walking so fast he had begun to tire Rouge out.

"Where are we even going?" she demanded after an hour of obedient power-walking, stopping to breathe. "It's too early for me to be doing this."

"I told you you'd see!" he half-shouted back, sounding irritated.

About five minutes later, he stopped abruptly in front of a dumpster.

He spread his arms and said unenthusiastically, "Ta-da."

"What're we gonna do, fly it?" she asked with a roll of her eyes. She crossed her arms.

"We're gonna get in it, to be sure."

He hopped in, holding the lid open for her. Grudgingly, she carefully jumped in. Thankfully, it was freshly emptied; it must have been garbage day. Their statures, significantly shorter than the humans who made up the majority of Station Square (as opposed to Central City, Station Square had a smaller population of Mobians), proved to be convenient when they were able to stand straight up in the dumpster.

"This place sti-"

Suddenly, Shadow grabbed her hand. Her eyes, already wide from being in the dark, widened even more. He pulled her slowly towards him, leaning his face into hers. Rouge's lips parted as she began to close her eyes and-

"CHAOS CONTROL!" he yelled.

Rouge tried to pull her hands up to her ears, but Shadow kept hold of them. The red flash suddenly emitted by the emerald surrounded them was blinding. An odd sensation filled their chests as they warped between cities.

When Rouge opened her eyes, Shadow's hands were no longer wrapped around hers. In fact, he was standing over her.

Realizing she was laying spread-eagle on the ground, she snapped up, looking around in hopes of figuring out where she was.

"Calm yourself down or you might actually give yourself a heart attack," Shadow said calmly. "This is pretty common for someone who has never used Chaos Control to warp long distances before."

'Wha-what happened?" she asked.

"When we landed, you looked pretty dizzy. I tried to stand you up, but you fell over instead. You're clearly not cut out for this business."

"Oh please," she mumbled. "Neither of us are."

"That may be true, but if it is, I'm definitely more cut out for it than you are."

After giving a fed-up sigh, Rouge paused to examine her surroundings. They were in the mountainous area outside of Soleanna, in the forest. The trees were tall and thick, and the leaves that fell every once in a while were larger than Rouge's hand. Rouge knew from her general location that heading West would eventually lead her to the perfect blue waters that surrounded the city on the sea.

"Shadow?" she asked, standing up.

"What?"

"Why did you-"

"I wanted the Chaos Control to have as little of a noise as possible. When someone Chaos Controls, the air around them rushes into the area they used to occupy and it makes a loud noise. I wanted to get in that dumpster in the middle of the business district to make as little noise as possible; I'm not supposed to Chaos Control on missions."

"I meant why did you pull me-"

"I - well, every inch was important."

"I see."

"You didn't think that I was trying to-"

"Of course not!"

He looked at her suspiciously. "You keep mistaking me for the type with feelings."

She rolled her eyes. "I think you've got feelings. We all do."

He laughed mirthlessly. "I can attest firsthand to my own stoicism."

"I must disagree," she said, smiling. "If you had no feelings whatsoever, you wouldn't be bitter all the time. Bitterness is a feeling."

"It's a state of mind," Shadow replied, looking around the forest.

Rouge smirked. "West is that way."

"I know where west is," Shadow snapped.

"You didn't look like you did."

And so the bickering continued, all the way through the forest. Oddly enough, they were both smiling-just a little.


	20. Chapter 18: Gratitude

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me."

Rouge and Shadow stared over the side of the cliff. It was five hundred feet at least to the bottom, where the city was nestled carefully along the rocky coast.

"We can just Chaos Control down there," Rouge suggested, glancing briefly at the emerald in Shadow's hand.

"Ha!" he retorted. "Quite to the contrary. We can't make a grand show of ourselves."

Rouge crossed her arms and glared at Shadow. "I don't see any reason why not! We're going to cause a scene just by being there—we might as well just save the flight down."

Shadow paused, trying to think of a way to explain why they needed to be discreet without directly telling Rouge what the plan was. "It's just not wise to get that kind of publicity this early in the mission."

"_This early_? Shadow, this mission can be over by lunchtime if we do it right."

"This mission hasn't even started. Besides, even if we were to Chaos Control at the edge of the city, someone may still see us."

Rouge emitted a fake sigh in defeat and mumbled, "I guess you're right, Shadow." That said, she hopped into the air and hovered over him. "Now shut up and grab my feet."

Shadow looked up at her, perplexed. "What?"

"Grab my feet, we're flying down there."

"You can't make it 500 feet! We'll drop right out of the air!"

She winked at him. "That's the plan."

"Are you cracking jokes about mass suicide?"

Suddenly irritated, she snapped, "Just grab my damn feet."

Shadow complied and grabbed her ankles apprehensively. Trying not to reveal how long it had been since she last had to carry someone while flying, she stifled a groan in pain when she struggled to lift off.

When they were finally in the air, Rouge allowed herself to fold her wings.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shadow tried to yell. His voice was muffled by the wind rushing by them, but Rouge got a good idea of what he was saying when he dug his fingers into her ankles.

Around two hundred feet off the ground, Rouge slowly started to open her wings, which proved to be harder than she expected due to headwind. However, they still managed to be gliding down at a reasonable pace when they had about 50 feet left to go, signaling to the pair that they would both be just fine. Despite a slightly bumpy landing, they made it on solid ground unharmed.

Shadow tried to remain standing, but was still so shocked by the sudden drop that he only stumbled and fell to the ground after a few seconds. Seeing this, Rouge decided to hover over him until she could be sure that she wouldn't do the same thing.

"Dizzy?" she asked, grinning.

"Not dizzy, just slightly in shock." He allowed himself to ignore a self-set standard of masculinity and stayed sitting on the ground.

Feeling somewhat guilty for Shadow's frightened state, Rouge landed delicately on the ground next to him and extended her hand. She was still a little shocked, and slightly wobbly. Observing this, Shadow got up by himself and said, "I'll help myself up with your hand when you can stand up straight."

Rouge didn't hear the end of his response, however, because she began to busy herself with getting her bearings. They had landed in the middle of what seemed to be a deserted cobblestone plaza. Two-and-three-story whitewashed stone buildings surrounded them, packed so closely together that Rouge couldn't have squeezed between them. The only way out of the clearing was a small, five-foot wide alley.

"I guess we're going that way," Shadow deadpanned.

"I guess we are."

Rouge followed behind as Shadow led them down the alleyway. When they turned to leave the alleyway and walk onto a bridge, they were greeted by a familiar face.

"Espio!"

* * *

The Chief walked slowly down the dark passageway. He had taken ten flights of stairs and passed through five maximum-security barriers just to retrieve a small disc.

There wasn't any light this far down, so he meandered through the tunnels with only a flashlight and a pistol to guide him. At the end of this tunnel, he knew, was the answer he was looking for.

"Doctor."

He wasn't quite sure how to greet the man who had once been his arch nemesis. Especially under the present conditions, which rendered them partners in crime.

"Hello, Victor."

The Chief was almost startled by someone referring to him by his first name. "Do you have the disc?"

"I'm trying to sleep. Come back in the morning."

The Chief chuckled wickedly. "Allow me to rephrase, Doctor," he replied coldly, "do you wish to be waterlogged?"

Eggman's silence perplexed the Chief until the cell was suddenly illuminated by the brilliant electric glow of the computer. Within seconds, it was booted up and ready to go.

The light cast a glow that allowed the Chief to familiarize himself with the large, twenty-by-twenty cell. The thick iron bars separated him from a room that looked like a regular bedroom, only with the addition of more space and a computer. The large computer was none other than the one from the Space Colony ARK control room. This was what Eggman received in the deal.

"Let me see, here," the Doctor mumbled to himself. "What was the password? Ah, yes. Ma-ri-a."

After typing several commands that the Chief didn't understand, Eggman reached under the computer and withdrew the small CD.

"Here's your disc, Victor. I must express my gratitude for your retrieval of this computer."

"That was hardly a problem. And when I tell you, you will… you will—"

Eggman knew what the Chief was trying to say, and cut him off. "I will warm up the Eclipse Cannon. Earth will be at your fingertips."

Without another word, the Chief headed back through the maximum security gate and continued up to his office. No one saw him return, just as no one saw him leave.


	21. Chapter 19: Wristwatch

Without greeting Shadow and Rouge, Espio raised his index finger and motioned for the trio to vacate the empty alley. He was walking much faster than normal as he led them to a sudden turn in the cobbled path that expanded into several small passages between the buildings. Confused by their surroundings, Rouge and Shadow walked cautiously behind him, keeping just enough distance to feel safe from any potential predators waiting around a corner.

Rouge glanced at Shadow nervously and noticed that he was clutching his right wrist. When he caught her eye, he gently let go and let his hand drop to his side. She continued observing his movement as they walked, and couldn't help but notice that his right arm didn't sway as naturally as his left when he walked.

A distant humming grew louder and louder. When Espio turned back to check on the dynamic duo, he saw their confusion and shook his head as a way to tell them not to worry.

They emerged from the alley into the most crowded marketplace Rouge had ever seen. It was hard to believe that just a few minutes previously she had been thinking that Soleanna was a ghost town. Squinting through the crowd, using her hand to shield her eyes from the harsh sunrays, she shoved her way through the crowd following the curly shape of Espio's tail. She had to keep her eyes on the shape of the tail because the sudden exposure to the sun had made it seem like colors were blending together; trying to follow Espio's bright scales was useless because everything looked blue. Shadow followed close behind Rouge, not bothered at all by the light change. Perks of being the Ultimate Lifeform include "Light isn't much of an issue, I can stare at the sun all I want when I want."

The density and size of the crowd made the three of them noticeably uneasy; Espio constantly looked back at Rouge to make sure she and Shadow weren't falling behind. Rouge's eyes darted about as she kept watch on the crowd that rendered her more vulnerable than she liked to be. She knew it was silly to think that anyone in a town as friendly as Soleanna would hurt her, but letting her guard down led to terrible things. You know, like robots knocking her out with a two-by-four. This very image in mind, Shadow kept his gaze intently on the back of Rouge's head, clutching the Emerald tightly.

After about ten minutes of shoving and being shoved, they made it through the crowd and found themselves yet again in an alley narrow enough to still be a threat to your everyday claustrophobe. It was significantly less congested than the market, where you couldn't even see what types of fruit were on sale because of how thick the crowd was, but it was still annoyingly busy and certainly not a good place to discuss their mission. However, Espio deemed it empty enough to at least initiate small talk.

"I saw you two drop in," he said with a quiet chuckle. Seeing the surprised look on their faces, he added, "Of course, I have a fine-tuned sense of my surroundings as well as eyes that are easily twenty times as sharp as any regular human's. You have nothing to worry about with regards to subtlety."

"Falling off a cliff was a pretty great experience," Rouge replied with a sarcastic eye roll. "Shadow fell pretty hard when we finally dropped in though. He let go of my ankles too soon." She cast a leery glance at his wrist, expecting him to bring it up.

He did, but barely. "It was just a bit of whiplash, and it's certainly not anything to trifle with. I'm fine." Upon noting his "fine" state, he flashed the group a thumbs-up that perplexed Espio. Every aspect of Shadow's personality shouted "Thumbs up are really fucking stupid looking, in my opinion," but there he stood, looking more like Sonic than he would ever like to. While the chameleon pondered away, Rouge recognized that Shadow was trying to show her that his wrist was just fine.

"Oh really?" she asked, sounding unconvinced. "You are completely fine?"

"If either of us have any right to comment on my health, it is solely mine."

Espio turned to face them and looked back and forth between the two of them. "Did I miss something?"

"No," they replied in unison.

He sighed, and, holding up a gloved hand, motioned for them all to stop walking, right in the middle of the crowded alley. People all around gave them dirty looks, but he disregarded them and abruptly demanded, "Are you two dating?"

"What?" they asked, again in unison.

"I need to ask because this mission is going to be much more complicated if you two keep having conversations that only make sense between you. You do it every time we go on missions together, and I just need to know so I can cut you some slack and hope to eventually fix the problem."

"We most certainly are _not_," Shadow snapped.

Espio turned to Rouge with a sigh. "He doesn't seem very convincing. Are you guys dating?"

She shook her head with a smirk. "Of course not," she remarked playfully, "I'd be uncomfortable dating anyone so stiff. You know what they say about stiff people—the stiff are stiff because they can't _get_ stiff."

Unsure of what to say, and not wanting to anger Shadow (who now looked absolutely taken back and disgusted by Rouge's jab), Espio shot an awkward half-smile and said, "So that's what the theory is."

"I don't even want to know what you intended to imply with that phrase," Shadow scoffed. "I wouldn't date a person who insisted on such an outright denial of class and respect for people's boundaries."

"Says the hedgehog packing a pistol and a rock that can make him travel through time and space."

"Says the bat making snide commentary about what I can and cannot achieve sexually."

"Says the hedgehog who got an innuendo out of that when I never said there _was_ an innuendo."

"I assumed there was because _you_ said it."

"So I can assume that you're offended by it because you're a limp noodle?"

"I'm not offended by the remark because I know that I'm just fine in such circumstances. I'm offended by your attempt to attack my masculinity."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "If I wanted to attack your masculinity," she said, leaning forward, "I'd do _this_." She snatched up his right hand and bent his wrist forwards and backwards. She felt and heard the official crack saying that yes, Shadow's wrist was indeed fractured in his fall. Shadow may not have heard the crack, but he sure felt it, and gasped out of shock as a sudden wave of pain went through his arm.

"Now that was decently girly," she teased. "I think I made the same noise when I broke a nail when I was six."

He stared at her, angry and embarrassed. "You—you—"

People in the alleyway had come to a standstill, at first to observe the argument but now to observe the aftermath. Many of them recognized Rouge and Shadow as international heroes, and were disappointed to see these two symbols of power and freedom sharing witty banter and concluding the ordeal with making fun of a fractured wrist.

Rouge smirked again and grabbed his left wrist. "Come on, princess, let's get you a cast."

He snatched his hand from hers and abruptly shot, "I don't need a cast, I need a new partner."


End file.
